The San Diego Section playoffs seeding meeting for boys lacrosse is Saturday and the Eastlake Titans appear to have set themselves up with an invitation to the tournament after defeating host Bonita Vista, 7-0, on Wednesday to lay undisputed claim to this year’s Metro-Mesa League championship.
The league title is the eighth consecutive for Eastlake, not including last year’s aborted season due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the 12th overall in program history.
EHS head coach Dale Drees said the team’s winning tradition is a self-motivator. This year’s team appears to have risen to the challenge with an overall 11-5 record.
“It’s very hard to stay on top when you’re on top,” Dries said. “Our last game against Bonita Vista (an 8-6 Titan win on May 5) was tough. We were focusing on what to well against them to be champions again. The defense has kept us in the games they were supposed to.”
The Titans appear to be peaking at the right time of the season after out-scoring their last five opponents by a combined score of 66-4. Eastlake has racked up a 46-1 scoring edge in its last three games, including a 23-0 margin in its last two games.
The Titans rolled past visiting Hilltop, 16-0, on Monday after defeating visiting Olympian, 13-1, two days earlier.
Kian Martin scored the opening two goals in Wednesday’s game while older brother Renick Martin added a third uncontested goal. The Barons had two early goals disallowed for crease violations that changed the complexion of the contest.
“We had goals from a number of players — Chase Trinidad, Zach Shields, Sam Archer, Nate Trinidad,” Drees said. “Hopefully this win will move us up the power rankings.”
The boys playoffs start for Division I boys teams on Tuesday, May 25, and for Division II boys teams on Wednesday, May 26.
Bonita Vista, which fell to 7-2 in league, 10-4 overall, will be bidding for an at-large playoff berth.
Girl power
Eastlake defeated Olympian, 20-9, on Monday to officially lay claim to this year’s Metro-Mesa League girls championship while improving to 9-0 in league play, 13-2 overall.
Castle Park, which was forced to play alongside Mesa League teams this season due to a shortage of teams, was awarded the South Bay League championship.
CPHS coach Chris Kryjewski said team goals this season were to have fun and continue the family tradition even with health/safety restrictions, distance.
“Our team strengths are that we stick together and compete at all facets of practice and in games,” Kryjewski said. “We want to compete in our league and continue the progress we started in 2019. Last year was cut short but it truly showed what we were able to do. We also want to compete in our schedule to get ourselves into the CIF playoffs.
The Trojan ladies (6-9 overall) finished 6-2 in conference play, with the lone two losses to the top two Mesa League finishers.
Castle Park defeated San Ysidro twice and Mater Dei twice and Hilltop and Bonita Vista once each in conference play.
“It’s been six years in the making,” Kryjewski said. “I had to rebuild the team.”
Consider the rebuilding complete after posting a runner-up finish to Mar Vista in the 2019-20 season’s South Bay League standings.
Top performers this spring for the Trojans included seniors Berenice Villalobos with 37 goals and four assists (41 points), Milagros Aguilar with 36 goals and one assist (37 points), Anissa Diaz with 20 goals and five assists (25 points) and Sharlin Hernandez with 16 goals and one assist (17 points) and Nani Roche with 12 goals (12 points).
