Tars capture inaugural Newport-Mesa Cup

CORONA DEL MAR — Josh Brooks, the Newport Harbor High girls’ soccer team’s first-year coach, had grown tired of the phone calls and all the feedback he received after the Sailors lost to Corona del Mar, 3-0, Thursday.

He did as much as he could to make sure Newport would not lose again to the Sea Kings. Yet, all he really had to do was remind the Sailors who are their biggest rivals. That played a key part in Newport’s 5-1 win over the Sea Kings, that gave the Sailors the inaugural Newport-Mesa Cup championship.

“I didn’t realize how big the rivalry is,” Brooks said in a phone interview. “My [players’] parents were upset. They were reading the paper and their ego was hurt. They were catching phone calls from alumni.”

Now the Newport fans can call back the CdM supporters with a one-up statement: the Sailors maintained possession throughout and handled the Sea Kings on their own field.

“CdM didn’t even score,” Brooks said of the own goal that occurred within the game’s first two minutes. “We went to clear it out, but it hit our forward’s shin guard and into the back of the net.”

But the Sailors (3-1) responded from the 1-0 deficit with their five-goal run.

Gillian Hogan struck first for Newport, answering five minutes after the own goal. Olhaver then scored the first of her two goals on an assist from Christina O’Tousa, who later scored. Lauren Devoy capped the scoring for the Newport-Mesa Cup champions.

“We took it to them,” Brooks said. “We definitely outclassed them. We were definitely the better team from start to finish.”

Brooks said the Sailors received key contributions from Ohlhaver, Alex Conley, Cyrstal Minna, Rachel Baugh and goalie Mary Giberson.

“I would say possession was 75% to 25% in our favor,” Brooks said. “We got a lot of confidence. That first game was a shell shock for us.”

CdM Coach Bryan Middleton said the Sea Kings weren’t able to capitalize on their opportunities.

“We had five set pieces in the second half, but didn’t connect on them,” Middleton said.

Middleton said he also noticed Newport Harbor competed with two players it did not have in the first meeting between the Back Bay rivals Thursday. Brooks concurred, saying he had benched two key players in the season opener because of disciplinary reasons and, “they made a world of a difference,” on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, Newport Harbor defeated Estancia, 3-1, to reach the Cup’s title game. CdM beat Costa Mesa, 1-0, getting a goal from Ashley Katz on Saturday morning.

Estancia (2-1-1) denied the Mustangs of a third-place finish with a 4-2 overtime win.

The Eagles’ Taylor West and Jennifer Thomas scored in the first half. But Costa Mesa answered in the second half with two goals from Ayla Medina, setting up the 15-minute overtime period that was not sudden death. In overtime, Stacy McDaniels and Jillian Beck scored to give Estancia the victory.