No more Mr. Nice Guy

Jelove Mira had always been a gentleman. He played soccer like cartoon Chip 'n' Dale ("No, I insist, after you). Too afraid to crash into an opponent, the Lighthouse Christian Academy senior used to let any and every player win the ball.

Then, coach gave him some drills to improve his physicality, steel his nerve and amp up his testosterone.

No more Mr. Nice Guy.

On Thursday, some bearish defending helped the Saints defeat last year's league champions, Newbury Park. LCA came from behind to upset 2-1.

At the stopper position, Jelove was hassling and harrying, tugging and shoving, stabbing legs around opponent's feet searching for the ball, pushing the outer envelope of permissive aggression to clamp the Gators' bite.

Oh, he was nasty and mean.

The formerly meek-and-mild student who appeared more apt for a placid round of summer croquet suddenly became the Abrams tank racing around the backfield smashing anything that dared to enter his turf. He beat players to balls and launched them back into attack.

One lapse in the first half resulted in the Gator goal. Tenacity and sheer willpower denied them another in the second half. The undermanned Saints pulled back two because of indefatigable work.

"We had no answer for your energy," admitted the opposing coach.

It wasn't Lighthouse's technical ability that won the game. It was their heart. They were out-classed by Newbury, but they worked tirelessly, even though they had no substitutes for the 11 member co-ed team.

In the second half, freshman Levi Photenhauer latched onto a ball on the right side of the box and crossed the goalie to tie the score.

With 10 minutes until time, sophomore Brandon Montes ran up from defense to strike an overshot corner low and through a thicket of players to catch the unprepared goalie by surprise.

Exhausted but elated, the Saints breathed a second wind to foil a late Gator bid to equalize.

"I've coached for nine years," said Coach Jack Mefford. "And I've never seen a team that worked as hard as you did today. You had so much energy, so much hunger to win."

The Saints are 3-0-0 in league play.