Duarte’s early goal good enough for Eagles

COSTA MESA — At Estancia High, the boys’ nickname in soccer is, “Aguilas,” which is Spanish for Eagles. There is another moniker in Spanish people should get used to. It’s “Pollo,” which means chicken, the nickname for Eric Duarte, but the junior is anything but on the pitch.

He’s not loco either. He’s one of the Aguilas’ best players and on Friday in an exciting cross-town rivalry game, Duarte scored the game-winner. He caromed the ball off his chest and kicked it into the goal, past an out-of-position goalie, just one minute, 30 seconds into the game. That led Estancia to a 1-0 win over visiting Costa Mesa in an Orange Coast League game.

Throughout the game, the Mustangs hardly backed down from an aggressive Estancia team. Duarte was there to meet the challenge and keep his Eagles (7-3-5, 3-0 in league) in first place in the Orange Coast League.

So that further begged the question, ‘Why do they call Duarte, Pollo?’ It has nothing to do with soccer. When he was younger, his family dressed him up in yellow for Halloween and his uncle, Luis Aguirre, called him Pollo. The name stuck.

On Friday, another yellow came for Duarte, but it came in the form of a card, in the 10th minute. The Eagles, mainly Coach Gannon Burks, appeared uneasy because they didn’t want to lose one of their best players. But, Duarte continued to play as if there was no threat of another card.

“It was very physical,” Duarte said of the game. “We needed to finish … They played good and gave us a challenge. But our defense played better and shut them out.”

A few times, when Duarte was tackled to the ground, he reacted with a shove. There were two yellow cards assessed to Costa Mesa (3-8-2, 1-2). As the game ended there were handshakes, but also some trash talking. Just to be safe, there were two police officers standing at midfield as the players walked through, slapping each others’ hands.

Safety is sometimes needed for a rivalry game, but while animosity is present, so is some good soccer.

“No matter how bad one team is doing or how good the other is, this is a hot game,” Costa Mesa Coach Eugene Day said. “It’s a good rivalry. We always stand up for it. We played hard, but no connections … I didn’t see three solid passes where we controlled the ball. But we were right there.”

Day said his team hustled throughout the game and goalie German Briseño, who played in the second half, came up with some big saves. With about two minutes remaining, Briseño left his feet to deny Jesus Garcia a goal. Briseño also turned away Duarte in the 58th minute.

“They played an outstanding game,” Burks said of the Mustangs. “We controlled the game very well. Rivalry week, that’s what it’s all about. Eugene’s team did an outstanding job. Thank goodness we got up early and we were able to maintain our lead.”

Day pleaded to his players to shoot during the game. In the first half, he yelled out, “Don’t even think about it! Don’t even talk about it! Do it!”

But the Eagles continually won balls and controlled the game.

“I would like to think we are the best team [in the Orange Coast League],” Burks said. “It’s kind of cool. We can play each other two more times. If we can win the next round, hopefully we can get a [league] title I have not [achieved] as coach.”