Saturday afternoon and evening the Coronado High School soccer teams invaded the campus of Cathedral Catholic and came away with two CIF Division IV titles. The score of both final games was 1-0. It was the third CIF championship for the Coronado Girls Soccer Team in four seasons and the second title for the Islander Boys Soccer Team over the same period.

The Girls entered the finals coming off of a nice playoff run which found them defeating Escondido Charter 2-1 in the Quarter-Finals and Francis Parker 2-0 in the Semi-Finals.

Against Parker, Stephanie Hamilton accounted for both goals in the offensive end of the field. Goalie Cory De Marco was credited with the shutout in goal.

Barreling out of the top half of the 12-team playoff bracket were the No. 1 seeded Knights from The Bishop’s School. Coronado was the No. 2 seed. The conventional wisdom, at least from the Coronado perspective was that the Islanders’ tougher fight to win the competitive Western League might give them an advantage over the Knights who play in the Coastal League.

The kickoff of the Girls Final was delayed by 15 minutes until 4:15 pm due to the length of the previous game and the contest began in bright sunshine. Kiko Medina, the Islanders head coach explained his early-game strategy. “We talked about the side of the field we wanted, where the sun was in their keeper’s eyes. Early on we wanted to take shots from the outside, even half chances, just to get something on target.”

That part of the game plan worked to perfection as 2:08 into the game, Mallory Mitchell ripped a shot past the Bishop’s keeper. “I saw the play building up,” Medina said later. “Mallory did a great job of creating the angle and the space for herself. She hit a tremendous shot. I think the assist was from Hamilton.” The shot was a laser from about 10 yards in front of the goal.

The problem with an early goal is that Coronado had to protect the lead for the remaining 78 minutes of the game, while simultaneously trying to score and expand their lead.  Considerable pressure was placed on the Islander defensive backfield and goalie De Marco, who wound up with nine saves in the game. One of the saves was a nice sliding effort toward the end of the first half. “Cory had a phenomenal game,” said Medina of the junior four-sport athlete. “She definitely came up huge when we needed her to.” Keep in mind that Coronado yielded one goal in the three games they played in the CIF Playoffs.

In a phone conversation with Medina the evening after the game, it was suggested by Your Natterer that Francis Parker forward Rachel Abernethy who the Islanders faced in the Semi-finals appeared to be more dangerous than the Bishop’s front three. Medina told me I was crazy, but in a nice way. “They play different styles. Parker’s forwards sit out more and Parker sits back on defense. Little by little they get more numbers forward and they let Abernethy do it on her own. With Bishop’s we had to be concerned with all three players up front. We really had to defend. We haven’t had to defend that much since I’ve been coaching in Coronado. The girls got it done when they needed to.”

Coronado controlled the midfield for most of the contest, which can be attributed in part to the efforts of seniors Mitchell, Cassie Callahan, Demi Waitley and Kaitlyn Couture. “Kaitlyn won tackles and did the dirty work for us,” Medina said. “Cassie put a lot of pressure on their midfield. Demi was really a key for us. She hasn’t played a whole game all season long, as she was coming back from an injury. She did everything we needed and created opportunities going forward. The final two games with Parker and Bishop’s were the two of the best games I have seen her play. Hamilton had a great game for us up top.”

As the clock wound down in the second half, predictably the game became increasingly more physical. Two Coronado players received yellow warning cards from the referee. Cassie Callahan was sidelined briefly when a tackle by a Knight’s player created a cut on her knee, which was quickly treated by Islander Athletic Trainer Connie Martinez.

 Bishop’s pulled out all the stops to try to send the game into overtime. Knights Head Coach Brian Quinn sent his goalie forward into the Coronado box as an extra attacker when Bishop’s earned a corner kick with less than two minutes remaining in the game. The Islanders were able to withstand the challenge.

History has a way of repeating itself in sports and that was true Saturday. As a freshman in 2008 Mitchell scored the winning goal in the Division IV Finals against Bishop’s. Four years later it was Mitchell again with the game-winner.

The victory over Bishop’s continues a remarkable run for the Class of 2011. Avery Woodhouse, Mitchell, Callahan and Couture all played on the varsity as freshmen. Four years ago Medina also called up Ali Culora, Alana Pokorny and Mariah Stacy to practice and dress with the varsity during their playoff run. As was mentioned in the opening paragraph the team has now won three titles in four seasons. Their ‘off’ year was a Finals appearance two seasons ago against La Jolla. The Islanders tied for the Western League title three seasons ago with Cathedral Catholic and have won the league championship outright for the past two years.

Medina knows the seniors are special. “As a group, they are just phenomenal. I couldn’t be any prouder of the group this season. In December, the girls were starting to doubt and worry. But they kept working and kept their composure. If we didn’t have such a tough December, we wouldn’t have won the game Saturday.”

Coronado (13-6-4) thus earned the No. 4 seed in the CIF Division II Regionals, the first game of which was held Monday evening when the Islanders hosted Palos Verdes. “This is just icing on the cake,” said Medina of Coronado’s participation in the Regionals. On goals from Cassie Callahan and Mallory Mitchell, the Islanders advanced by the score of 2-1 to play at Santa Margarita Wednesday in the Regional Semi-Finals.

Islander Boys Soccer Defeats Francis Parker in CIF Division IV Finals

After the Islander Girls Soccer Team had collected their championship plaque, their individual championship patches and posed for pictures, it was the Coronado Boys Soccer Team’s turn to take the field. By the 6:37 pm kickoff was accomplished, the sun was down and the temperature had cooled. Since Coronado (24-1) was the No. 1 seed, the fans that stayed for both games had to switch sides in the stadium.

The Islanders defeated San Diego High Tech High 1-0 in the Quarter-finals and Bishop’s 3-2 in the Semi-Finals. The Islander goals in the Semis came from Andrew Orozco on a header directly from a Tommy Hart throw-in. Kyle Koshland scored on an assist from Ruben Perez-Burton for the second tally and Orozco scored the third goal on a free ball in front of the net. Ricardo Gonzalez-Diaz earned the win in goal, an effort that included a couple of great diving saves and a couple of point blank stops on Bishop’s shots on goal. Gonzalez-Diaz was credited with 11 saves against Bishop’s. It was an exciting game played in front of the Coronado faithful Tuesday evening.

Back to the Championship Finals, Islander Head Coach Brian Hiatt-Aleu wanted to see his team get off to a quick start and although Coronado was aggressive throughout, the deciding goal didn’t come until late in the contest. “Our idea was to repeat a little of the strategy from the Bishop’s game and put Parker under pressure early. The way they play and the way their league plays (the Coastal League), nobody pressures up top. We worked in practice on bringing high pressure in the first 15 minutes of the game, dictate the pace, and put pressure on their defense. We wanted to make them uncomfortable and let them know it was going to be a long night and that we would challenge every inch of the field.”

Hiatt-Aleu has the reputation among soccer aficionados as being a great in-game strategist and he showed flexibility in his game plan, changing from a flat four defense early in the contest, to a sweeper/stopper defense. This was done to add another Islander player to the midfield area. The move added strength to an already aggressive Coronado offense.

Taking nothing away from the Coronado players, but several of the most impressive efforts of the evening were clearing kicks by Parker goalie Griffin Barra. One indirect free kick sailed fully 70 yards in the air, was touched by Gonzalez-Diaz in front of the goal for Coronado and glanced off of the upright. There didn’t seem to be a prevailing wind blowing in that direction. Assuming Barra could transfer his skill to football from futbol, he could make a living at the professional level as a kicker. Hiatt-Aleu, who has been around the block a few times from a soccer perspective as player and coach, said, “I’ve never seen a kick go that far.” 

The first half ended in a scoreless tie, with both defenses seemingly in control of the game. Neither offense could mount a sustained attack in the final 10 minutes of the half.

Action was back and forth throughout the first 15 minutes of the half and seemingly with 25 minutes remaining in the game, Coronado cranked their effort up a notch. “The main thing I was yelling was to keep going and keep the pressure on,” said Hiatt-Aleu. “Raise your level right now. Nobody works harder than we do. We work weekends, over Christmas break, in the weight room so that we can grind out games in the last minutes.”

And so they did.

With 2:30 remaining in the game, Tommy Hart executed a throw-in, Sergio Flores flicked the ball in the direction of the goal and Orozco converted on the scoring opportunity. “The celebration was amazing,” said Hiatt-Aleu. “The players on the field ran to the bench to celebrate with the kids who weren’t playing. That shows the kind of team we are.” The joy of the moment was tempered a tad when the game referee yellow carded Hiatt-Aleu for his team’s excessive celebration. There was nothing but exuberance from Coronado after the goal and a yellow card in that situation was simply absurd.

When asked to name his Championship Finals standouts, Hiatt-Aleu didn’t hesitate. “If you think about the three playoff games, we had 240 minutes where our defense didn’t allow a goal during free play. No scoring during free play speaks volumes about our team defense, including Hart, Flores, Perez-Burton, Matthew Ovrom and Nathan Andersen. Ricardo was solid in goal. It was just a great way to win the championship, dramatically like that.”

Throughout the season Hiatt-Aleu has remarked about the unity and collective drive of his team. “This is a team of no egos. The seniors treated the freshmen and sophomores as they would other seniors. These guys all took care of each other all year. We had good karma all year. We won the Triple Crown, including our tournament, the Central League and the CIF. This is a year the kids will remember forever. If you are going to have any success as a team, everybody is going to have to sacrifice.”

A quick word regarding Andrew Toomey is relevant at this juncture. Over the past year, Toomey played on the CHS Baseball team that won the CIF Division IV title last spring. In the fall he was a linebacker on the CHS Football Team that won the Central League title. This winter he was a forward on the CHS Soccer squad that won Division IV. Three pretty strong outings in three straight sports seasons. “He’s a hard worker and that’s a tribute to him,” said Head Baseball Coach Sam Ceci. “Of course he can go for the trifecta (in this school year) with us. He’s a great kid.”

The Islanders reward for being among the top-ranked teams in San Diego County was a No. 8 seed in the Division II Regionals. Monday the team planned to leave Coronado at 12:45 pm to drive to play No. 1 seed Claremont in Ontario. I’m not going to directly say what Hiatt-Aleu really thought of the team’s lowly seed, but it was, uh, negative in nature.

Hiatt-Aleu wouldn’t let the seeding situation get him down. “We’re going to go represent San Diego, the city of Coronado and the school. We’re going to go up there, have some fun and enjoy it. We’re going to play as many kids as possible. We used minimal subs all three games and we have some kids who are hurt and sick. We’re just going to enjoy it and the result will be whatever it is. We’ll have a fun ride up and back and grab some dinner. Everybody will play at least a half and we’ll make the trip worth their while.”

As we approached deadlines for this week’s edition, the Boys Team lost to Claremont 1-0 in overtime and concluded their season with a mark of 24-2.

Islander Girls Lacrosse Returns Most of Their Starting Lineup from CIF Finals Team

Coronado Head Girls Lacrosse Coach Jessica Battle is frankly in a pretty good place coaching-wise this spring. In 2010 her team reached the CIF Finals and lost to Torrey Pines 9-8 in a well-played contest. From that team she lost three fine players to graduation in Coco O’Brien, Anna Turpit and Lainey Mebust, but the key fact is that only three key players were lost. She will also have a nearly full season of Kaitlyn Couture, who missed all but two weeks of the 2010 campaign with a broken foot, when she joins the team at the conclusion of the soccer season.

“It’s a question of who goes where,” said Battle. “Everyone is very close, which is a good problem to have as a coach. It’s going to be a whole new team. I’m excited.”

The Islanders potent offensive attack will be led by returners Couture, Michaela Guerrera, Lauren Maack, Alex Reidy, Nikki Kruger and Mollie Privett. Meganne Weissenfels makes the transition from basketball defensive specialist to well, lacrosse defensive specialist, as she returns as the squad’s goalie. Also returning on defense are Cory De Marco and Brianne Clifford. “The next spot is kind of up for grabs,” said Battle of her defensive front line.

In conjunction with the formidable offense and the returning defensive starters, the depth on the defensive end of the field is stronger than ever. “These younger kids earned their spots on the varsity on defense,” Battle said. “We’ll have a really strong defense this year. The tables have turned (offense vs. defense) a bit and that’s good.”

Four freshmen will make the varsity and they include Erica Keamy, Martha Byrne, Rachel Brennan and Sarah Andersen. “Our last graduating class had four girls who started as freshmen and last year we took four freshmen,” Battle said. “We realized that as a small school, if we continue to compete against larger high schools, we have to bring the freshmen along. That way we can work with them for four years.”

Coronado’s competition schedule has been upgraded considerably. Although the Islanders remain in the City Conference, they are only required to play the other conference teams once each. The lone in-conference threat to Coronado this year is Scripps Ranch. According to Battle, the reduced conference schedule means that the Islanders can load up on stronger opponents. “We have a much better schedule and more flexibility. We play a team from Maryland, a team from England and all of the top teams from North County. That includes La Costa Canyon, Torrey Pines, Poway and Rancho Bernardo. Only Carlsbad wouldn’t play me.”

The regular season begins Tuesday evening at 7 pm when Coronado hosts Monte Vista. Friday at 7 pm the Islanders will host Carondelet from Northern California. Said Battle, looking forward to the coming campaign, “We have a really, really solid team.”

Islander Baseball Season Opener Last Friday vs. Steele Canyon

Coronado Baseball Head Coach Sam Ceci didn’t sound all that concerned that his team opened its season with a 1-0 loss to Steele Canyon in the Aztec-Foothiller Tournament. “It was a very good ballgame against a very good team. The polls haven’t come out yet, but I would bet they are in the Top 20 for sure, if not the Top 10. We competed better than I thought we would. We had as many opportunities to make it work as they did. It was a tough loss to a good team and we measured up pretty well. We could have won it with a couple of key hits. We made the plays defensively and they certainly didn’t outclass us.”

Ceci continued his assessment of Coronado’s first game. “Their pitcher was 6-feet, 6-inches tall and hit 90 miles an hour (with his fastball) a couple of times. I know when he pitched there were 10 guys with radar guns on him.”

The Islanders countered with their staff ace Jake Meloche, who didn’t allow any runs in the four innings he pitched. He did yield five hits and four walks which drove his pitch count up to 86 in his first official spring outing. “But he got a ground ball, a pop-up or a strikeout when he needed it,” said Ceci of the junior left-hander.

Coronado collected four hits in the contest, one single each from Dylan Campbell, Garrett Smerdon and Jack Mikesell and a double from Kyle Teachout. The two-bagger from Teachout came in the seventh inning and sailed over the left fielder’s head, placing him in scoring position. But the clutch hit that would tie the game wasn’t forthcoming.

Ceci and his staff are in the process of assembling the team, but one area that the club is strong in is pitching. Including Meloche, the Islanders have the rarest of the rare in high school baseball, three left handed starting pitchers. They include Austin Denson and Luke Gillingham. Denson was last seen in this column as the starting quarterback of the Islander football team and Gillingham was the starting power forward for Coronado’s basketball team. Both athletes helped their respective teams win league titles. “They are all six-foot lefthanders and they all look like they can pitch.”

Although he was pinned with the loss, Campbell pitched well for two innings, yielding only one unearned run. Others who will pitch for the Islanders this season include Teachout, Mikesell, Toby Talampas and Devin Vaage.

Two potential members of the starting lineup who just completed their soccer season include catcher Andrew Toomey and infielder Ryan Keeney. Due to an arm injury to Smerdon, freshman Robby Delamontaigne handled the catching duties against Steele Canyon. When Meloche isn’t pitching, he will play first base. Tyler Brownell will also play at first and will be the team’s designated hitter when he alternates with Meloche.

Teachout is currently at second base, while Campbell is playing shortstop and Mikesell is playing third base. Denson and Gillingham will also play in the outfield when they aren’t on the mound. The outfield staff will include Smerdon, Colin Clark, Freddie Schlichtholtz, Joe Williamson and Hank Taylor.

Coronado will compete in Division IV this year and in the Western League. First they have to fight their way through the playoff-rich Aztec-Foothiller Tournament. “It’s a pretty aggressive schedule,” said Ceci of the beginning of the regular season. “We play at San Ysidro Wednesday at 3 pm, Friday we host Mater Dei at home at 3 pm and Saturday we play Grossmont at Santana at 1 pm. Then we go right into the City Conference Tournament and we play Mira Mesa in the first game. Every team we play in this first tournament was a playoff team from last year. I’m hoping we can win three of the first five games, but we’ll have to play well.”

Ceci added, “We’ve got the makings of a decent team. On the surface we don’t look all that good, but when we get our catching stabilized and we get stronger defensively up the middle, we’ll be able to challenge a little bit. I don’t know how good we are going to be offensively. But our pitching will be as good as anybody’s. We will have to do a lot of things right to fare well against the competition we have lined up.”