Saints fearless in win over tough Kofa

By Glae Thien, Special to the Union-Tribune

Friday, January 1, 2010 at 12:01 a.m.

St. Augustine High junior Kevin Mauckman and his teammates took note yesterday of some imposing numbers that their out-of-state opponent brought into the teams’ title encounter in the 15th annual Southern California Classic boys soccer tournament.

Yuma Kofa owned a 78-4 scoring edge over the opposition and a 12-0-2 record on the season. For their part, the Saints countered with the single hope of extending a remarkable tournament run with a short-handed roster fortified by four players up from the junior varsity.

Then St. Augustine went out and dealt the Kings their first loss of the season, 1-0. Mauckman’s second-half goal gave the Saints the Elite Bracket crown. It came as part of a championship quadrupleheader at Cathedral Catholic yesterday in the tourney hosted by Oceanside.

“Our team’s really good this year,” Mauckman said. “So I just knew we could hang with them.”

The Saints (6-1-2) dominated ball possession in the first half while remaining without five players either because of injury or personal reasons. Yet since they couldn’t convert on their six corner kicks before the intermission, coach Brendan Johnston led off his halftime talk calling for a new approach.

It worked. At 12 minutes into the second half, freshman Dominic Chavez directed a corner kick to senior Sean Fitzpatrick on the outside edge, and in turn, Fitzpatrick delivered a crossing pass to Mauckman near the far post for his second goal of the season.

“After Sean crossed it, I was just waiting there for it to come through,” said Mauckman, a second-year varsity member. “Oh, it felt great to score.”

Mauckman and Fitzpatrick then went back to their usual role on defense in front of goalkeeper Zach Sheppard, who had to make only one save on the day.

“This is a good confidence booster for us,” Fitzpatrick said. “Also, it’s a great way to start off heading into the (league) season.”

The Saints opened the tourney with a scoreless tie against Otay Ranch in pool play but then staged comebacks in two of the three wins needed to reach the final.

“Everybody’s contributing,” Johnston said. “We had a lot of guys show that they can play well. For the coaches, that’s exciting.”

In the Showcase Bracket, Alex Carr scored with a minute left to lift Anaheim Servite (11-2-2) to a 1-0 victory over Watsonville (5-3-1). Goalkeeper Chris Martinez recorded his second shutout in three games for Servite, ranked 11th in the nation.

Montgomery took the Premier Bracket title by claiming a 3-2 victory over Oceanside (9-3-1) on first-half goals by Joey Estrada, Daniel Moreno and Alvin Garcia. The Aztecs (11-3-2) jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first 17 minutes but needed goalkeeper Luis Reyna to make four saves in the last 10 minutes to preserve the final margin.

In the girls final, Victoria Jones scored two first-half goals to help lead Vista (7-1-1) to a 5-2 victory over Oceanside (11-3-1). The Panthers took a 3-2 halftime edge en route to their second win in two tourney meetings between the schools.