Olympian High School senior Tyler Santini is not a magician but he does wave a rather wondrous lacrosse stick. The Hilltop Lancers will attest to that following the visiting Eagles’ magic carpet ride to a somewhat incredulous 7-6 come-from-behind victory in the teams’ Mesa League opener on Monday.
Santini tapped his stick and produced three goals, including the game-tying goal with four seconds left in regulation play and the game-winning goal 57 seconds into the sudden-victory overtime period.
For Santini, it was just another day at the office in what has quickly become a standout season. The Olympian four-year varsity player entered Monday’s game with 18 goals in six previous contests. He walked off the field Monday with 21 goals in the Eagles’ opening seven games — a 5-2 start.
“I knew we could get something going, but I knew we had to do it fairly quickly,” Santini explained in recounting his game-tying goal. “My team saw me open and I got the shot.”
The game-winning goal came on another long pass and deadly shot. “Our defense caused a turnover and we had a good look by one of our defenders, and one of our guys fed me open to score,” Santini said.
Hilltop, which entered the game with a 7-1 record after a team best 6-0 season start, opened up a 2-0 lead in the game on goals by Cade Simonds and Manoa Lutu. But the Eagles responded with three goals in the final 4:59 of the second quarter to post a 3-2 halftime lead on the scoreboard.
Santini got the rally going by scoring off a pass from sophomore teammate George Swarez-Solis. Senior Kennedy Furst then scored a pair of unanswered goals to push the visitors ahead at the intermission.
Hilltop once again grabbed the momentum with two goals to start the second half of play to take a 4-3 lead after Sam Uranga scored twice. But the third quarter ended in a 4-4 deadlock as the pesky Eagles got a third goal in the game from Furst.
The Lancers scored back-to-back goals just 21 seconds apart by Simonds and Brandon Racela to open the fourth quarter to lead 6-4.
The hosts led 6-5 with 1:02 to play following a goal by Santini’s younger brother Nathan.
Hilltop still held a one-goal lead with 48 seconds to play in regulation following a time-out by the Eagles.
The Lancers managed to work the ball out of their zone with 26 seconds left and had the ball deep in Olympian territory with about 12 seconds left in the game. But that was enough time for an Eagle defender to collect the ball, take a few steps up field and launch a long pass to Santini, who was running alone on the right attacking flank.
Santini took maybe four steps and scored from close range to tie the game. Furst was credited with the long pass that enabled Santini to notch the equalizer.
It was an eye-opening play — one that would be repeated inside the first minute of the four-minute sudden-victory overtime period.
“This was our first overtime game this year but we’ve had a few games that have been close,” Santini explained. “We can learn from this — to come out swinging and not start the game lazy.”
Soaring Eagle
That Santini drove the Eagles’ comeback is not surprising to head coach Keith Quigley.
“In the last four years of our program, nobody has worked harder in practice or in a game than he has,” Quigley said. “He has been on the varsity since day on as a freshman.
“What I noticed right away was his athlete’s mentality — he hates to lose,” the Olympian coach explained. “He has a very strong work ethic, pushes himself; he’s one of the toughest guys — toughest mentally and physically. When he plays a game, he gets after it for 48 minutes. He doesn’t take a second off.
“He never misses practice. He pushes the other kids to become stronger. His drive, so much of it is mental. He has the mark of a true athlete.”
Quigley lists Santini’s position as a defender but adds that the Eagle standout also plays a key role as a long stick midfielder.
Surprisingly, Santini has become a master of the game only since starting to play in high school.
“I had a back injury playing youth football,” Santini explained. “I had been playing football all my life. I had a full recovery but I wasn’t able to participate in full-contact sports any more.
“I decided to try out for lacrosse my freshman year in high school and I fell in love with it. Now lacrosse dominates my life.
“During the lacrosse season, I practice Monday through Saturday. The days we don’t have practice, I go running and go to school to shoot.”
Quigley said Santini’s playing attributes are his grit, scrappiness, determination, hard work and desire.
“The motivation is the want to get better and the want to improve and help your team out,” Santini noted. “You want to be the best.”
Santini has since played for some of the county’s top tier club programs. He received a season MVP award with the Coronado-based Lax Dawgs. He has also received the defensive MVP award with Olympian as well as the Eagles’ “hustle award” his freshman, sophomore and junior seasons.
He is headed to play NAIA lacrosse at Benedictine College, a small liberal arts college in Atchison, Kan. “I want to have a positive impact on the team and grow as a lacrosse student-athlete,” he said.
Santini said the team’s goal is to qualify for the CIF playoffs. “We lost a lot of seniors last year,” he said. “I’d like to make a trip to the playoffs my senior year. We’ve been in the playoffs two years in a row.
“It’s huge to come as far as we have in the short amount of time the program has been going.”
As one of three captains on this year’s Olympian team, all his physical training and mental preparation have come together.
“Being selected as a captain, I enjoy helping other players out, making sure everyone understands what’s going on and keep everyone on the same page,” he said.
“I give it 110 percent — 24/7,” Santini said in regard to his personal playing philosophy. “I’m constantly giving it my all. If you’re giving anything less, you’re cheating yourself and your team.”
Fight the future
Hilltop head coach Pete Bishop called Monday’s Mesa League opener against Olympian “a good, well-fought game.”
“Somebody had to lose,” the longtime Lancer coach assessed. “It was us.”
Bishop said the Eagles caught his team on a pair of transitions.
“We stopped playing like we should have been playing,” the HHS coach explained. “They got two goals at the end because we had guys watching the ball. We’ve got to do a better job. But that’s the nature of high school sports.”
The Lancers, who could present Bishop with his 100th career win this season. He would be just the third coach in Metro Conference history to reach that milestone.
Hilltop was among 25 schools that competed in the section’s inaugural season in 2002.
“It means that I’ve been around a long time,” Bishop quipped. “You can add up the losses, too.”
Coming into Monday’s league opener, the Lancers’ lone loss was 9-6 at San Diego in a non-league contest on March 24. Hilltop defeated visiting Chula Vista, 12-2, in a non-league match-up last Friday to post its seventh win in eight games.
Junior attackman Cade Simonds has been the catalyst thus far for the Lancers in 2016.
“I had him in freshman football and he’s a great athlete,” Bishop explained. “He played lacrosse at the junior high school level and on clubs. He plays on club teams at the high school level. He understands the game. He’s got good stick skills. He’s got good athletic skills.”
Simonds picked up two goals in Monday’s game. He scored the game-winner with four seconds to play in a 9-8 non-league win over Montgomery on March 14.
Titans top Barons, open defense of Mesa League title
The defending Mesa League champion Eastlake Titans opened league play Monday with a gritty 7-4 win over visiting Bonita Vista.
Matthew Stuber (three goals) and Jaxen Trinidad (one goal, two assists) led Eastlake with three points in Monday’s win. Asanti Baltazar had two goals and Evan Farrage scored once for the victorious Titans, who led 4-2 at halftime and, after the Barons score once in the third quarter to narrow the score to 4-3, put the game away with a 3-1 scoring edge in the final quarter.
Nathan McPeak made 15 saves for Eastlake, which collected 29 ground balls in the game.
The Titans (3-4) host Serra (2-6) in a non-league game Friday at 7 p.m.
