By James Joseph
WSL Senior Features Writer

With 15 minutes left in the CIF-North Coast Section championship game and her team trailing by two, Danville Monte Vista senior middie Lauren Goerz decided she wasn’t going to let her team lose.

She scored a pair of goals – her third and fourth of the game – to tie the score. Then she assisted on two goals by Maddie Mulford, the second of which was the game-winner in the Mustangs’ 6-5 triumph. In between, she played lock-down defense and won draw controls.

“She basically just decided to take over the game,” Danville Monte Vista head coach Dearborn David said. “She’s a very unselfish player, but she knows when she needs to turn it on. And she did that.”

The performance helped cap a perfect 23-0 season and gave the Mustangs their second straight CIF-North Coast Section crown. It also typified Goerz’s all-around impact on a lacrosse game.

“She does it up and down the field,” David said. “You can’t pick one part of the field where she didn’t make a contribution.”

Goerz, who is WSL’s California Girls Player of the Year, dominated draws for the Mustangs. According to David, she had a knack for either drawing the ball to herself or getting it to a spot where she could win a ground ball.

Goerz also excelled clearing the ball and was, according to David, Danville Monte Vista’s “number one defender.”

“Nobody can get past her one-v-one,” David said.

Goerz’s contributions weren’t limited to games. David called her team captain “the epitome of what we try to create at Monte Vista.”

“She’s competitive. She’s a good teammate. She’s coachable. And she’s always striving to get better – she’s never ever complacent....She’s a coach’s delight.”

Next season she’ll delight the coaches at the NCAA Division I level at the University of California-Berkeley, where she will continue her lacrosse career.