SoCAL BOYS: CIF-SS Playoffs: Foothill-OC Beats Los Alamitos

By Michael Carnow
WSL California Correspondent

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. – The fans may have been chanting, “Moose!” every time Patrick McLaughlin stepped up to take a face-off Friday, but the Foothill-Orange County senior middie looked more like a bulldozer against Los Alamitos.

McLaughlin won 20 of the game’s 30 face-offs to lead the second-seeded Knights to a 14-12 victory over the third-seeded Griffins in a CIF-Southern Section Southern Division semifinal at San Clemente High School.

“I wore antlers once during practice on JV as a joke, and the nickname just stuck,” McLaughlin said.

Junior attackman Tucker Rowe finished with a team-high five points on one goal and four assists, sophomore middie Cooper Pickell scored four goals and sophomore attackman Cameron Cole added four points on three goals and one assist to help Foothill (19-5) avenge an 11-8 regular-season loss to Los Alamitos.

“This was a big win for us,” McLaughlin added. “We wanted to get back at them after our three-goal loss earlier this season, so we have been waiting for this match-up. We’re just trying to take it one game at a time.”

With the victory, the Knights advanced to the Orange County championship game, which will be played at Irvine Stadium on Tuesday night at 8 p.m., PDT. Foothill will face top-seeded Corona del Mar, the West’s 15^th-ranked team, which downed fifth-seeded Santa Margarita Catholic, 16-7, in Friday’s other semifinal.

It will be the teams’ first meeting since the Sea Kings beat Foothill 7-6 in overtime on March 11.

“We needed that win, especially after losing to Los Alamitos earlier in the season,” Rowe said. “We want to prove that we are the best team in Orange County.”

On Friday, senior middie Chris Cole registered four points on two goals and two assists, junior attackman Taylor DeBerry had three points on two goals and one assist, and senior middie Mike Upshaw and senior middie Mitchell Cooper both scored twice to help the Knights advance to their third straight Orange County championship game.

Defensively, junior goalie Nathan Kleponis saved 14 shots.

In a losing effort, junior attackman Mike Marchand finished with a game-high six points on four goals and two assists, senior middie C.J. Jacobs scored four goals and senior attackman Garret Gosselin added four points on two goals and two assists for the Griffins (19-2), who had their 18-game winning streak snapped.

Senior attackman Kevin Comisso and sophomore attackman Mark Lowrimore had a goal to round out the scoring for Los Alamitos.

Pickell fired a shot bottom left from five yards to put Foothill up 5-1 with 11:29 to play in the second quarter, and the Knights controlled the game from there.

Rowe dished to a driving Chris Cole, who stuck a shot top right to give Foothill its biggest lead at 13-8 with 6:47 remaining in regulation. 

The Griffins scored the game’s final three goals, and Marchand put his team within two at 14-12 with 2:04 left in regulation. But it was too little, too late for Los Alamitos.

McLaughlin won the ensuing face-off, and the Knights maintained possession until expired.

“We just came out short in the first quarter, and that absolutely killed us,” Los Alamitos head coch Kevin Meyran said. “Foothill is the team to beat, though. They are an awesome program, so my hat’s off to them. We got this far, but came up just a little short.”