Eastlake High School boys lacrosse coach Kevin McPeak freely admitted the Titans would enter the 2017 season with a very young team that would rely on a lot of new faces to make an impact.
However, he also said the four-time defending Mesa League champions’ goals would remain the same despite losses to graduation.
“Our goal every year is to compete in as competitive a non-league schedule as is possible, win the Mesa League championship and get as far as possible in the CIF Division I playoffs,” the Eastlake coach said. “This year, these goals will be as difficult as they’ve ever been, with a very demanding non-league schedule and outstanding competition within the Mesa League.
“We expect that the teams in league will be strong this year and that the championship will be highly contested. We fully expect every game to come down to the wire.”
McPeak pegged the season perfectly.
The Titans got off to a 1-5 non-league start and were 2-7 in their opening nine games.
But those growing pains appear to be over.
It seems that young Titan squad has begun to show signs of growing up following Monday’s 5-3 victory against the visiting Bonita Vista Barons.
The key win tied the teams with identical 5-1 league records heading into the final two regular season games.
“We talked to the boys about the legacy that those who came before them established — the expectation of how well we played,” McPeak explained. “We have a very young team; they’ve matured over the season.”
Bonita Vista entered Monday’s game having defeated Eastlake, 7-6, in an overtime contest on the Barons’ turf on April 5. The teams had each won their remaining games to make Monday’s game a battle for first place in the league standings.
Should the teams continue to win the rest of their league games they would finish in a tie for the banner and share a league co-championship.
However, if one falters, the other would win uncontested rights to this year’s league title.
“It’s too early to talk about anything yet,” McPeak cautioned. “We still have to play Otay Ranch and we went into triple overtime with them in the first game. I’ve known Otay Ranch coach Doug Murphy long enough to know that he’ll have his team prepared. We expect to go down to the wire.
“We also have to play Montgomery, laat year’s South Bay Legue champion. We can’t afford to get complacent.”
Monday’s game, filled with many crowd-pleasing hits, was tight early on as Eastlake sophonore McKinley Egland-Young and Baron Billy Ray Esparza exchanged goals. Paris Delgado scored late in the opening period to give the hosts a 2-1 lead.
The Titans took control from there by adding three more goals in a short span near the end of the second half.
Derrick Speed scored to make it 3-1 Eastlake, followed by unanswered goals by Titans’ Evan Farrage, a first-team Metro Mesa all-league selection last year, and Egland-Young, up from last year’s junior varsity squad along with Speed.
Eastlake led 5-1 at halftime and appeared firmly in control of the game.
But the Titan faithful had to hold their breath in the dying minutes of the game as the Barons finally were able to penetrate the EHS defense.
Esparza scored with 8:17 left in the final quarter to trim the Titan lead to 5-2. Teammate Frank Rodriguez then added a goal 32 seconds later to make the score 5-3.
Bonita Vista had a couple of other good scoring chances to conceivably make the score even closer.
“We had a lot of energy and defensive stops in the third quarter but couldn’t get any goals,” Bonita Vista coach Sam Cardenas explained. “When we did score in the fourth quarter, we opened it up a bit and took a few chances.”
Eastlake goalie Nate McPeak, the 2016 Mesa League Player of the Year who is bound for Syracuse University next year, was credited with 13 saves in the contest while BV netminder Henry Wong was credited with three saves.
The Titans were held scoreless in the second half.
“That’s a fine Bonita Vista team,” the elder McPeak said. “They made some adjustments at halftime. We couldn’t counter them.”
The race for the banner now is in the hands of both teams.
Eastlake (9-7 overall) hosts Otay Ranch (2-3 in league, 5-10 overall) on Friday (7 p.m.) and plays at Montgomery (0-4 in league, 5-7 overall) next Wednesday (May 3).
Bonita Vista (13-4 overall) finishes its season with a pair of away contests: Wednesday at Montgomery and next Monday (May 1) at Hilltop (1-4 in league, 8-7 overall).
“It they lose one and we win both of ours, we’re back on top,” Cardenas noted.
On a roll
Simon Tang and Esparza each scored three goals, Timmy Tucker scored two goals and Rodriguez scored once in Bonita Vista’s 9-6 league win at Otay Ranch on April 19. Wong made five saves in the win.
The Barons bested visiting Hoover, 16-1, in a non-league game April 17. Rodriguez led the victors with six goals while Esparza scored five times in the game.
Junior Brock Hayes paced Eastlake with six points (three goals, three assists) in the Titans’ 13-3 win at Hilltop on April 19 while freshman Braden Mayer contributed four points (three goals, one assist). Farrage scored three goals in the game while collecting a team-high eight ground balls. Junior A.J. Caturay scored twice in support of Nate McPeak (14 saves).
The Titans defeated host Olympian, 12-4, on April 21.
Update:
Thursday, April 27
Hilltop 15, Montgomery 3
Friday, April 28
Eastlake 5, Otay Ranch 3
Updated standings:
Bonita Vista 6-1, 13-4
Eastlake 6-1, 10-7
Hilltop 2-4, 9-8
Otay Ranch 2-4, 5-11
Montgomery 0-6, 5-9
