RELOADED, NOT REBUILDING ECR DANGEROUS DESPITE LOSS OF KEY PLAYERS.

Byline: ERIK BOAL

Special to the Daily News

The nonleague schedule could have been downgraded. A West Valley League loss would have been understandable. And postseason expectations could have been tempered.

But even after graduating five All-City softball players, that approach still isn't acceptable at ElCamino Real of Woodland Hills.

"The expectation is for us to win City every year, no matter what," ECR coach Lori Chandler said. "They understand this is what ECR is all about."

The Conquistadores' list of accomplishments runs as long as Valley Circle Boulevard, with 13 City championships, 26 West Valley titles in 27 seasons and a sorority of student-athletes who have excelled at the Division I college level.

Three of those individuals -- Francesca Enea (Florida), Bianca Mejia (Michigan State) and Megan Miller (Ohio State) -- led ECR to the City semifinals last season before losing to fellow 13-time City champ San Pedro.

The void left by last year's graduating class was noticeable, even by ECR's standards. Miller accounted for 22 of the team's 27 victories, and the Conquistadores lost more than 60 percent of their offense, including 75 percent of their home-run production, the biggest void being Mejia's state-leading 16 round-trippers.

"We're very fortunate to have that success," Chandler said. "We've had great kids come year after year."

In the fall, the buzz throughout the San Fernando Valley was that those kids weren't coming to ECR this season.

Instead, veteran athletes Kellie Caplan, Brittany Goodchild, Kaitlin Healy, Amanda MacIntosh and Aubree Plodinec have been surrounded mostly by players who were moved up from the junior varsity, causing the rest of the league to believe that the Conquistadores would be vulnerable this season.

"They've definitely underestimated us, and if they want to continue doing so, then they can," said Goodchild, one of two seniors on ECR's roster. "We know we can win and we're going to."

What rivals Birmingham of Lake Balboa, Chatsworth and Granada Hills overlooked was that ECR's JV team might have been the second-most talented group last season -- at the varsity level.

"A lot of people don't know what we have. We still have a lot of talent here," junior outfielder Ansley Dawson said. "Last year, (our JV team) was pretty much like a varsity team. We lost to the varsity 1-0."

Even with such a promising young group, including freshmen Kayla Dahlerbruch and Sammi Kraft, the Conquistadores (12-3 overall, 4-0 league) endured growing pains the first two weeks of the season.

After surrendering 12 runs all of last season, ECR was outscored a combined 21-2 in losses to Saugus, Hart of Newhall and Chaminade of West Hills.

"Last year we were all relying on Megan Miller to strike people out, and we'd just stand there and look good," said Caplan, a junior shortstop and ECR's leadoff hitter. "Losing those games has only made us better. These girls are going out and proving themselves every day."

Since a 7-0 loss March 12 to Chaminade, the Conquistadores have won seven in a row, allowing one run during the stretch. The maturation of the all-junior battery of pitcher Krista Cobb and catcher Laura Perry has been instrumental in ECR's success.

"A lot of people thought because we lost all those seniors that we would struggle," Perry said. "Like coach says, 'We don't rebuild, we reload.' No one thinks we can do it and that's fine with us."

Cobb tossed a one-hitter in Monday's 1-0 victory at Chatsworth, extending ECR's league winning streak to 34 in a row entering today's game at 3p.m. against visiting Granada Hills, the last West Valley opponent to defeat the Conquistadores, May8, 2003.

"Facing better competition has only helped us," Cobb said. "The coaches want us to get better and they're really confident in us."

Said Dahlerbruch: "We've bonded a lot more (since the losses). When we started, we were 12 kids on a team. Now we're one group."

With appearances in the Santiago of Corona and Thousand Oaks tournaments, along with rematches against Birmingham, Chatsworth and Granada Hills left on the schedule, ECR is on its way to being exactly where Chandler expects it to be in May: contending for a City title.

"It's a lot of fun playing on this team," Goodchild said. "It's not going to be the same game as it was last year, but everyone's working as hard as they can to get the same results."

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Photo:

From left, Kellie Caplan, Brittany Goodchild, Krista Cobb, Amanda MacIntosh and Kaitlin Healy are key players for the El Camino Real softball team, winner of 13 consecutive West Valley League titles.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

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