| AK | AZ | CO | IA | KS | MN | MT | NE | NV | OR | TX | WA |
| AR | CA | HI | ID | LA | MO | ND | NM | OK | SD | UT | WY |
SoCAL GIRLS: No. 9 La Costa Canyon Wins 3rd Straight CIF Title
Related:
By Michael Carnow
WSL California Correspondent
LA MESA, Calif. – After winning a title, teams will usually swarm their goalie or dog pile on their top performer, but the La Costa Canyon girls lacrosse squad did things a little differently Saturday night.
When the ninth-ranked Mavericks polished off a thrilling 6-5 victory over Torrey Pines in the CIF-San Diego Section championship game at Helix Charter High School, they gathered around head coach Katie Dolan and hoisted her on their shoulders.
“I didn’t even know where I was running to afterward, I was too excited,” Stanford-bound senior attack Jackie Candelaria said. “Torrey Pines played an amazing game, but I think we really came together as a team tonight. We came out here wanting it so badly, though, we just had to win.”
Candelaria registered a game-high three points on two goals and one assist to lead the Mavericks to their third consecutive San Diego Section title and fourth in the last five years.
Senior attack Kylee Gibson scored twice, and senior attack Kendra Keenan and sophomore attack Jackie Mills both added one goal to help La Costa Canyon (18-4) avenge an 11-10 loss to the Falcons on May 18.
The Mavericks won 11 of the game’s 13 draws, although that advantage didn’t necessarily lead to much more possession time.
The game was tied, 2-2, at halftime, and La Costa Canyon used a three-goal run in the second half to take a lead it would not relinquish.
“I’m so excited,” Gibson said. “Each year is special, and this was another amazing season.”
In defeat, senior middie Becky Trees and junior attack Annelysse Eggold both scored twice, and junior attack Julia Colley had one goal for the Falcons (17-7), who had their seven-game winning streak snapped.
Defensively, Torrey Pines sophomore goalie Carrie Yang saved six shots and kept Torrey Pines in the game.
Trees stuck a shot top left with 21:21 remaining in the regulation to put the Falcons ahead 3-2. But that was Torrey Pines’ last lead of the night.
The Mavericks answered with a quick scoring burst of three goals in three minutes, and Mills put La Costa Canyon up 5-3 with 10:11 left in regulation.
Torrey Pines twice came within a goal, including in the final minute when Eggold caught a pass from sophomore attack Anna Knowles and ripped a shot bottom left with 58 seconds to play to make it 6-5.
But the Mavericks won the ensuing draw, and a Falcons’ yellow card on sophomore Katie Trees with 43 seconds remaining allowed La Costa Canyon to run out the clock.
“I’m really disappointed,” Becky Trees said. “We had so much passion and really wanted it, but we played an excellent team. Unfortunately, a couple calls didn’t go our way and some late turnovers really hurt us. But I still think we played great overall.”
Last Night
I completely agree. It was no suprise who the yellow card was going to in the final minute, and it was the correct call. Torrey Pines is a great lacrosse team, however they have earned the reputation of being a "overly-aggressive, hardhitting team". When one of your "best" players is consistently getting fouls and yellow cards, the referees have no choice but to intervene and call the game as close as possible. LCC was smart enough to know how to work the calls in their favor. Both teams played excellent games.
Now to the reffing in San Diego County. I believe that there has to be a change made. Girls from across San Diego are chosen to play on teams on the East Coast, where the rules are very different. When they come back, and play like that, they are punished. With so many San Diego and West Coast players making the transition to Division 1, East Coast lacrosse programs, we are doing nothing but making them unprepared for the new challenges they will face next fall. If San Diego lacrosse wants to emerge as a lacrosse hotbed, the rules have to change.
Championship Game
Congratulations to La Costa Canyon. Great season! Congratulations as well to Torrey Pines. This was a real turning point for the program and a notice to the rest of the league that there is a new contender here to stay!
Torrey Pines fan here, so a bit biased admittedly. However, the officiating in this game was an absolute travesty. The 3 officials decided from the get-go to make this game more about THEM then the talented athletes on the field from Torrey Pines and LCC.
There was no flow to the game as every 20 seconds or so a whistle was blown, a flag thrown, or a card issued. 4 yellow cards were given to Torrey Pines and 1 to LCC. Torrey Pines played a man down for 12 minutes of the game! The icing on the cake was a VERY, VERY questionable yellow card to one of Torrey Pines' very best players with about a minute to go in a one-goal game. In that situation, where two great teams are playing for a league championship - how in the world can a referee make that call!?
CIF needs to invest in some officiating clinics or find some new, more capable officials. What otherwise would have been a great, competitive and exciting game, was marred by the constant presence of the officials whistles.
Congratulations to LCC and Torrey Pines for great seasons. Shame on the referees.
championship game
Both teams played outstanding games last night and the final score is indicative of that. I think it is very easy to blame the referees after a loss since it is hard to accept defeat but we have to take into account all of the chances both teams had to score and didn't capitalize on them (free position shots). The yellow card at the end of the game did not come as a surprise to either teams since the stands erupted in applause as the official pulled the yellow card out. I have to disagree with the statement accusing the referees of blowing the game by awarding a yellow card; after all, the secret to getting the ball back with one minute in the game is composure. Also, if you take into account Torrey Pine's track record you would not be surprised by the card being pulled.
Girls lacrosse is definitely a stop and start game and fans need to realize that it's not going to flow as easily as other sports would. In every game, referees are called to blow the whistle to freeze play at every foul so why should a championship game be any different? After all, the nerves and intensity of the championship game could cause some girls to get a little out of control causing the officials to take precaution to ensure the girls' safety.
Torrey Pines and La Costa Canyon played exceptionally well in the championship game and I think we should give them credit for their hard work and accomplishments instead of passing the blame onto the the officials. Congratulations to both teams for amazing seasons.