The MacArthur Girls Soccer team won first place at the Santa Ana Unified School District Intermediate School Tournament on Saturday, January 11 at Saddleback High School. The soccer team went undefeated to defend their championship.  

In total, the soccer team played four games, winning all of them.  The tournament began with a 1-0 win over Sierra Preparatory Academy.  The next game was against Willard, and the girls won 2-0. The third game was against Romero Cruz Academy, which ended in a 1-0 victory.  The championship round pitted MacArthur against Carr Intermediate, and the game ended in a 0-0. That caused a round of penalty kicks that MacArthur won.

Girls Soccer Coach Mr. Pat Evans said, “Our greatest challenge this season was being able to get all the girls on the team to be at the same place at the same time.” 

The MacArthur Girls Soccer Team was put together during after-school tryouts.  Tryouts ended with a final roster of 19 girls on the team. Once the team was finalized, they began practicing daily, except Wednesdays, until their tournament date. 

Eighth-grader Mia Cruz said, “The best part of the season was being able to hang out the complete team at practices and having fun.”

Soccer practices were after school and held from 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM.  They did a variety of scoring, passing, and fitness drills to prepare for competition.  Like all other sports at MacArthur, the soccer season was six weeks long. 

Although there are many players on the soccer team, Evans said, “The most improved player was eighth-grader Mia Cruz.  She improved a lot throughout the season and was no longer injured.” 

Evans has coached girls soccer at MacArthur for a total of 20 years. To this date, MacArthur girls soccer has won a total of five tournaments including this one.