No Hero’s Welcome for Dolphin Coach

The return of former coach Mark Thornton helped fill the seats Friday at Capistrano Valley. The game then kept the fans on the edge of those seats.

The Cougars, ranked 10th in the county, survived some frantic final minutes to beat Thornton’s Dana Hills team, 65-64, in a South Coast League opener.

Capistrano Valley led by six with 3 minutes 15 seconds remaining, but the Dolphins rallied to tie the score, 59-59, when Todd Pittman stole an inbounds pass and made the layup with just over a minute left.

The Cougars answered with two quick field goals to go up by four with 50 seconds left, but Dana Hills came back and tied it, 63-63, when Tadeu Souza tipped in Reid Spiegl’s miss with 14 seconds left.

Mike Clifton went the length of the court and laid in his only points of the game with nine seconds left. Spiegl was then fouled bringing the ball up, but missed his first free throw in 10 tries.

After Spiegl made the second with seven seconds remaining, Dana Hills’ Larry Page stole the ball from Mike Stowell, then dribbled inside the three-point arc, where his shot from 15 feet sailed long.

“It would have been great to come out of here with a “W”, but we have nothing to be ashamed of,” said Thornton, in his first season at Dana Hills. “We had a shot to win it and it just didn’t happen.”

Thornton abruptly resigned his job at Capistrano Valley last season to take a year off and watch his son play from the stands, he said.

“It’s just good to be coaching again and I don’t care what gym it’s in,” Thornton said.