Breaking through

Photos

COSTA MESA — Mark Sanchez, all four feet of him, never backed down. It didn’t matter that the 6-year-old was playing against boys twice his size and in two or three grades above him. There he was at the Costa Mesa Farm Complex, mixing it up, making believers out of everyone that David did slay Goliath.

Sanchez never scored in the ninth annual Daily Pilot Cup soccer tournament, but his tenacious play and his back story added to the mystique of these Carden Hall boys.

They had several intriguing characters who led the Carden Hall third- and fourth-grade team to a 4-0 win over Mariners Sunday, and the school’s first boys’ gold division title. Carden Hall had never played in a boys’ title game before.

“I’m a bit biased, but our little guy, Mark Sanchez, was just a star,” said Mark’s father, Mike, the coach who played three years as a pro soccer player in the 1990s. “He’s a first-grader. He’s 6 years old. He didn’t stop. It fires other people up. When he’s out there working, I can say, ‘Are you going to let a 6-year-old beat you?’ And so the other kids are like, ‘Oh no, I’m getting in there now.’ It’s great.”

Carden Hall had twin brothers who came out looking great in their tournament debut and they just might be the reasons for some more titles in the years to come. Taylor and Dylan Campos also accomplished greatness for the Corona del Mar Green Tigers, a boys’ under-10 soccer team. The twins, who are in the third grade, led that team to the California State Championship in Bakersfield back in April.

The twins, who played midfield for Carden Hall, scored one goal each in the title game Sunday. Their skilled play opened up scoring chances for Carden Hall forward Sawyer Farmer, Mike Sanchez said.

Farmer scored two goals, part of Carden Hall’s second-half outburst that included all of its goals in the final 16 minutes.

Farmer, who played for the Newport Mavericks that won the boys’ under-12 AYSO Area Q championship recently, scored the game’s first goal with a beautiful shot. With 16 minutes left, he connected from 20 yards out on a shot that hit the inner top of the bar and bounced in. Five minutes later, he found the back of the net again.

Yet for all the refreshing story lines Carden Hall provided, Mariners owned a worthwhile tale fit for a book.

Mariners began the Daily Pilot Cup Tuesday with a 7-2 loss to Carden Hall, which scored five goals in the first five minutes. Mariners then tied, 1-1, with Newport Elementary on Wednesday. The Mariners team, that was playing for the first Gold Division title for the school for any division boys or girls, didn’t earn its first win until Thursday, a 5-1 victory over Pegasus.

Mariners went 3-2-1 in the tournament, knocking out two-time defending champion Andersen, 4-1, in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Mariners had to go to a penalty-kick shootout to advance past Lincoln. It was in that game, during regulation, when Alex Forman hit his head on a playground bar while retrieving a ball at Costa Mesa High Saturday.

A cut was left on his forehead, but Forman’s father, Coach Graham Forman, said Carden Hall parents, who were close by, helped Alex and stopped the bleeding.

Alex went back to play in the penalty-kick session, scoring a goal to help Mariners win 5-4 in the shootout after a 2-2 tie in regulation.

“It was really a fairy-tale tournament for us, but without the fairy-tale ending,” Graham Forman said.

In the semifinal against Lincoln, Sagris Srapyan scored two goals in regulation and hit the clinching score for Mariners to win in the shootout.

On Sunday, he was in the zone, stopping shots as the goalie in the first half. He had seven saves in the first half. And, after Farmer’s first goal, Srapyan converted into a field player.

But, Carden Hall also played excellent on defense with Chase Dugan controlling the back and goalie Devon Patterson stopping shots.

“This meant the world to the boys,” said Coach Sanchez, whose team went 6-0 in the tournament and outscored opponents, 30-8. “Our girls are really solid every year. Our boys get teased every year by the girls when they go far. At age 9 and 10, the girls do some good teasing and some good razzing. I put the fear of the girls in them before the game, that they would never hear the end of it.

“I don’t think they’ll really know what this means until they play in a couple of Pilot Cups. It’s tough to keep on winning.”

But maybe next year, Carden Hall will do it again.

STEVE VIRGEN may be reached at (714) 966-4616 or by e-mail at [email protected].