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Marina wins Sunset League championship
HUNTINGTON BEACH – Marina walked off its soccer field Wednesday looking rather dejected after the regular-season finale against Edison ended in a scoreless tie.
A victory would have delivered the Sunset League championship for the Vikings, but now there was still a chance that Fountain Valley could move past them and into first.
The Vikings huddled around their coach, Jeff Schofield, at midfield, some holding their heads low. Senior goalkeeper David Elias said he was extremely frustrated to have played a great game but still not beaten a rival.
But when Schofield gave his players the news about what happened to Fountain Valley on Wednesday, the Vikings’ mood quickly changed, and the celebration didn’t finish until they blindsided their coach with a Gatorade shower.
Los Alamitos beat Fountain Valley, 2-1, and that meant that Marina (16-2-6, 6-1-3) won the league championship, Schofield’s first in the 12 years that he has been leading the team.
The Chargers (10-6-6, 3-4-3) finished fourth in the league, but Edison coach Charlie Breneman believes his team played well enough down the stretch to get an at-large berth in Division 1.
“It fees great. I am so happy for the guys that have been here four years. We have a ton of seniors who have played a lot of minutes this year,” Schofield said. “That makes a big difference in the desire to make a difference in the game, and every game has been close.”
In 10 of the Vikings 16 triumphs this season, the margin of victory was just one goal.
“I would like to see us score more goals. I’d really like that,” Elias said. “That is something that we need to work on it, and hopefully we can get it done in CIF.”
Elias and his defenders have been carrying the Vikings this season. After Tuesday’s game, Breneman said Marina might be relying on its defense a bit too much and is failing to create many chances offensively.
In the 24 games that Elias has played this season, he has given up just seven goals in what amounts to about 1,900 minutes of soccer. His 18th shutout of the season on Tuesday brought his goals against average to 0.291.
“When I look back on it, I don’t even realize that I did that,” Elias said. “But it is not just me. It is the players in front of me too. They work so hard and they have done such a great job this season.
The Chargers tested Elias on Tuesday. In the final seconds of the first 10-minute overtime period, Jacob Rushing dribbled to the 6-yard box, but just as he was getting ready to take a shot, Elias slid in front of Rushing and kicked the ball away.
And then about a minute later, Rushing tried again. He chased down a ball that Trevor Verone lofted to the far side of the box. Elias came out of the goal to cut off Rushing’s angle, but he couldn’t stop Rushing’s shot. The ball just made it around his outstretched arm, coming to rest in side of the net, just a couple of inches behind the post.
It was only recently that the Chargers got Rushing back. He suffered a concussion in the Sunset League opener against Los Alamitos when a ball hit him “funny” in the head, Breneman said. Rushing, a 13-goal scorer last season, missed the next four games, and during that span the Chargers were 1-3. But since his return on Jan. 20, Edison is 2-0-3.
“We don’t have too many other guys (besides Rushing) who is going to score a goal, so take a guy like that off the field and it makes it that much more difficult for us to score. We depend on him,” Breneman said. Rushing scored two goals in the Chargers’ final five games of the season.
“I am proud of the guys. Our team could have folded and said hey we are done,” Breneman said. “But we kept going and going and we got something out of it.”
