GIRLS’ SOCCER ROUNDUP : Santa Margarita Survives Rally by Corona del Mar

Santa Margarita expected a second-half attack from Corona del Mar in the Sea View League girls’ soccer game Thursday.

But the first-place Eagles got more of a scare than they bargained for, before defeating the Sea Kings, 2-1, at Santa Margarita.

“They played the game with a lot of intensity the second half,” said Annie Luke, a freshman center-forward for Santa Margarita. “They gave us a wake-up call that half.”

Luke, who leads her team with eight goals, and Erica DeVitis scored in the first half and Santa Margarita (11-2-6, 7-1-1) led, 2-0.

Luke scored the second goal midway through the half as she beat out Kristen Vaughn and kicked the ball past Corona del Mar goalkeeper Laura Drumright, who made 13 saves. Corona del Mar’s leading scorer, Stefanie Hughes, was ill and did not play.

With 16 minutes remaining in the game, Corona del Mar’s Hilleary Kehrli took a corner kick and passed the ball to Emilie Keturakis, who kicked it past goalkeeper Charlene Iest.

Corona del Mar (8-4-6, 4-2-3), which gave up three goals in the last six minutes in the teams’ previous meeting three weeks ago in a 3-1 loss, had several opportunities to score in the closing minutes but most were cleared out by Santa Margarita’s defense.