Boys’ Soccer: Garcia leads CMHS past Estancia

Shortly after celebrating with teammates, Costa Mesa High’s Alexsis Garcia couldn’t stop smiling. When he was asked if he knew anyone on Estancia’s team, he kept smiling and chuckled.

“I grew up with all of them,” Garcia said, looking over at the Eagles’ huddle of disappointment. “So it’s a good feeling.”

Garcia had many reasons to be happy, well, at least four of them.

The sophomore sensation delivered three assists and one goal to lead the Mustangs to a stunning 4-1 victory over rival Estancia at Jim Scott Stadium on Friday night.

Costa Mesa was the home team in this one. Estancia plays its home games there too, but at times the Eagles appeared lost. The Mustangs’ speed overwhelmed Estancia.

“I was waiting for this game all season,” Garcia said. “But this is just the beginning.”

Costa Mesa (6-4-1) improved to 3-0 in the Orange Coast League.

Senior Ben Perez opened the scoring for the Mustangs off a pass from Garcia, just five minutes into the match.

“They definitely played better than us tonight and it was their night,” Estancia Coach Robert Castellano said. “But it shouldn’t have been 4-1. We just got rattled after the first goal. We were over-pumped up and over-amped. We were just making careless mistakes in the back. After the goal we scored I thought we would settle down. But we just couldn’t settle down.”

Estancia senior Kevin Pizarro made good on a penalty kick after a foul in the box with seven minutes left in the half to tie it up, 1-1.

But the Mustangs answered with a goal from Garcia two minutes left before the half.

“Alexsis is an intelligent player with great speed on the ball,” Costa Mesa first-year Coach Chris Sullivan said via text after the game because he had to catch a flight to Las Vegas for a club soccer event. “He’s a player with tremendous potential. We’re excited to see how much he can progress the next few years in the program considering he’s only a sophomore.”

Garcia’s goal was Costa Mesa’s lone tally that came shortly after a foul. The other three goals came on counters.

“They would wait for us,” said Castellano, whose team had not lost to Costa Mesa since the 2012-13 season. “They sat back and they countered with a lot of speed. They’re fast. We just made mistakes. Instead of dropping, our defense would fly out. After we made one mistake we would make another one. We didn’t rotate properly on defense. It’s just mistakes we usually don’t make. It just wasn’t our day today.”

A slight drizzle came on Jim Scott Stadium about 14 minutes into the second half. Amid the action, the Mustangs were raining shots on the Eagles. Freshman Javier Barrera broke through for a goal after finishing the assist from Garcia to make it 3-1.

Costa Mesa didn’t stop there. Just three minutes later, they delivered what appeared to be the knockout blow.

Garcia found another teammate open for a goal. This time it was Rafael Dominguez, and the Mustangs celebrated.

“It felt great to get a good result against our rival Estancia,” Sullivan said. “They always have a strong program and it took a collective team effort to get the win today.”