The San Diego Section expanded its boys and girls lacrosse playoffs this season with the expectation that more schools would be able to enjoy what, for many student-athletes, is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
The section added the new Division III tier to complement the existing Open Division, Division I and Division II tiers, thus creating four playoff divisions.
One major beneficiary of the expansion was the Metro Conference.
Seven boys teams started the season in league play and five were seeded for the playoffs: Mesa League co-champions Eastlake (eighth) and Bonita Vista (10th) in Division II and Mater Dei Catholic (fourth), Hilltop (eighth) and Olympian (10th) in Division III.
Eleven girls teams started the season in league play and six were seeded for this year’s playoffs: Mesa League champion Eastlake in Division II and Olympian (second), South Bay League champion San Ysidro (third), Mater Dei Catholic (sixth), Castle Park (ninth) and Mar Vista (12th) in Division III.
Thus, 11 of the 18 South County teams active for at least part of the 2022-23 spring season were able to partake in postseason competition, including eight in the new Division III tier.
On an even more positive note, five of those 11 teams won their first playoff game to advance to the next round.
San Ysidro and Olympian paired up for an all-Metro Conference semifinal in the Division III girls field while San Ysidro made history by becoming the first conference girls team to advance to the Division III CIF finals.
“This year has been a great journey for us,” SYHS coach Adrian Rodriguez said. “We went from having 15 players Last year to having 33 this year. We accomplished our season goals, which were to win League, make it to playoffs and make it to the finals.
Unfortunately, we fell short in the CIF championship game.
“I’m proud of this team; this has been the best program I’ve ever had, best team I’ve ever had, the best group of parents I’ve ever had, the best group of players I’ve ever coached. Even though we fell short, these girls are ready for next season. I have all players returning except for three. We can’t wait for what the future holds for us.”
Ladies first
Eight teams qualified for the Open Division playoffs in each gender field while 12 teams received seeds in the remaining three divisions. The top four teams in Division I, Division II and Division III received byes to the quarterfinals.
Eastlake met sixth-seeded Our Lady of Peace in the opening round with the Pilots recording a 17-5 victory to end the Lady Titans’ season at 14-7-1 overall, 8-0 in league play.
Olympian and San Ysidro both opened the playoffs in the quarterfinals. Olympian defeated seventh-seeded Santana, 11-9, while San Ysidro topped Mater Dei Catholic, 12-6 in the first of two pairings of South County teams in the division playoffs.
Senior Jada Lustina scored four goals for Olympian in the playoff win while sophomore goalie Laura Martinez made 12 saves on 18 shots.
Mechling mustered four goals and one assist in the postseason loss to the Lady Cougars.
San Ysidro met Olympian in the semifinals on May 17, setting the stage for San Ysidro’s trip to the division finals. The Lady Cougars venture to a CIF championship game equalled those posted previously by Bonita Vista in 2014, Otay Ranch in Eastlake in 2016, all at the Division II level. (Eastlake finished runner-up to Canyon Crest Academy in the Division II boys final in 2018.)
San Ysidro (22-3-1, 10-0 in league play) tangled with top-seeded El Capitan (16-5, 10-4 in conference play) for the right to possess the first Division III banner in section history and it was a close game with the Lady Vaqueros instead making history with a 6-2 championship game victory.
Senior midfielder Trinity Schelin scored two goals for El Capitan while Junior goalie Amaya Tone had 12 saves. The Lady Vaq defense held San Ysidro senior senior Genesis Cota Luna, the section’s leading scorer with 120 goals, scoreless in the game to buttress the East County team’s chances of winning the game.
The Lady Cougars out-scored opponents 250-97 this season.
“To our seniors, this has been a great journey,” Rodriguez summed up “I wish them the best of luck to whatever the future holds for them, especially to my daughter, Genesis, who will be attending Whittier College to play at the next level, I know she will do great things.”
South County intrigue
The numbers were definitely down for Metro Conference boys teams with just seven teams starting the season and two teams failing to finish it. But there was no question about the quality of competition among the teams that did play full schedules.
Bonita Vista, which has been trending upward in the conference standings in recent seasons, fired the first salvo with a 9-7 home field win on April 24. The teams rematched May 5 at Eastlake with the Titans scoring a 16-9 victory to even the teams with one league loss apiece.
The teams finished that way through subsequent games with identical 7-1 league records.
Both teams, however, had to navigate the Division II playoffs starting with first-round games.
Bonita Vista ventured to seventh-seeded Rancho Bernardo, ending its season with a 13-8 setback, while Eastlake hosted ninth-seeded El Capitan, winning 7-6 in double overtime.
The Titans advanced to meet top-seeded Francis Parker in the quarterfinals and though the reigning Metro co-champions put up a strong challenge, the host Lancers walked off the field with a 10-4 victory to continue their season.
Eastlake finished the season 10-7 overall while Barons finished the season 14-5 overall.
Francis Parker won two more playoff games, defeating fourth-seeded San Dieguito Academy, 7-6, in the semifinals and third-seeded Point Loma by the same score in the Division II championship game.
The Titans proved to be late bloomers during the spring season.
“We do have a lot of seniors but our strength comes from our juniors,” EHS coach Tristan Corpus said. “Our offense picked up the second half of the season. It’s a good group that never gave up our goal of making the playoffs.”
Team leaders on the scoresheet proved to be junior Jacob Sallee,and sophomores A.J. Jocson and Markell Bivens.
Mater Dei Catholic (13-5 overall, 3-2 in league) finished third in the Mesa League standings, followed by Hilltop (8-12 overall, 3-5 in league) and Olympian (5-13 overall, 0-7 in league) . All three teams qualified for the Division III playoffs.
Mater Dei Catholic defeated the fifth-seeded San Diego Cavers, 10-6 to record the first playoff win in the division by a South County team. Seniors Raul Mendoza (four goals) and Josh Vicente (three goals, one assist) both racked up four points in the Crusader win.
The Eagles and Lancers both held their heads high in narrow losses.
Olympian lost, 4-3, to seventh-seeded Mission Bay while Hilltop lost, 7-5, to ninth-seeded Monte Vista.
It was only second time in school history that Hilltop had ever been included in the CIF playoffs.
Mater Dei Catholic advanced to the semifinals against top-seeded West Hills, losing just 9-6. Mendoza chalked up two goals and two assists in the loss while Vicente had two goals. Senior Connor Cox had 13 saves onb 22 shots faced.
In the other semifinal, third-seeded Army-Navy upset second-seeded Helix Charter, 15-7, en route to scoring a 14-4 championship game victory over the top-seeded Wolf Pack.
Section-wide
The eight Open Division teams in the girls field included top-seeded Torrey Pines, second-seeded Cathedral Catholic, third-seeded La Costa Canyon, fourth-seeded Coronado, fifth-seeded La Jolla, sixth-seeded San Marcos, seventh-seeded San Dieguito Academy and eighth-seeded Scripps Ranch.
All the higher-seeded teams won in the opening quarterfinals, with Torrey Pines eliminating Scripps Ranch, 18-7, Coronado edging La Jolla, 11-9, LCC nipping San Marcos, 11-10, and Cathedral Catholic topping San Dieguito Academy by a 17-4 score.
The semifinals once again favored higher-seeded teams as Torrey Pines defeated Coronado, 15-14, and Cathedral Catholic outsted LCC by a 12-7 score.
Torrey Pines upheld its top-seeded status with a 13-4 victory over the Lady Dons in the championship game.
Fifth-seeded Bishops upended the Division 1 playoff field with a 15-11 win over third-seeded Carlsbad while top-seeded Mt. Carmel claimed the Division II title.
The eight Open Division teams in the boys field included top-seeded Bishop’s, second-seeded Torrey Pines, third-seeded La Costa Canyon, fourth-seeded Cathedral Catholic, fifth-seeded Santa Fe Christian, sixth-seeded San Marcos, seventh-seeded Poway and eighth-seeded Coronado.
Again, all higher-seeded teams won in the opening quarterfinals with Bishop’s eliminating Coronado, 10-3, Cathedral Catholic out-dueling Santa Fe Christian, 17-7, LCC racing past San Marcos, 16-5, and Torrey Pines sending Poway to the sidelines with an 18-3 victory.
Cathedral Catholic pulled off an 13-11 upset win over Bishop’s in the semifinals while Torrey Pines made it through via a slim 10-9 win over La Costa Canyon.
Torrey Pines (17-4) won championship game against the neighborhood rival Dons (15-6) by a score of 9-7.
Second-seeded La Jolla Country Day (15-7) shaded top-seeded St. Augustine, 10-8, in the Division I championship game while Francis Parker (13-7) won the Division II title.
CIF SOFTBALL:
The Otay Ranch Lady Mustangs and the Mater Dei Catholic Lady Crusaders made it an all-Metro Conference Division I final after winning semifinals games. Top-seeded Otay Ranch (22-7) defeated fifth-seeded Cathedral Catholic, 6-3, while second-seeded Mater Dei Catholic (17-12) eliminated sixth-seeded Mission Hills by a 12-0 score. Otay Ranch won the Mesa League title with a 5-1 record while Mater Dei Catholic finished third with a 3-3 league record.
