The Los Alamitos boys’ lacrosse team, which has at times been a painfully slow starter, jumped out in front of Marina thanks to a pair of goals by Cody Miller in the first quarter.
The Griffins never looked back and eventually finished with a 15-2 victory in Sunset League action at McAuliffe Middle School on Saturday, March 30.
This marked the second victory for the Griffins (9-2, 2-0), the six-time defending Sunset League champs, against the Vikings this year. They played consistently for four quarters, patiently and efficiently running their offense, dominating battles for groundballs and limiting the Vikings to 12 shots – three less than the Griffins’ goal total.
Miller’s goals gave the Griffins a 2-0 lead in the first quarter. They then blew the game open in the second quarter. Josh Duchon landed the first blow, finding the top corner of the net roughly four minutes into the second. Tyler Miller then scored at the midway point from 15 yards out. The initial shot during that attack was actually stopped, but Miller snagged the rebound and dribbled past the opposition’s goalie to take a 4-0 lead.
Josh Jenks scored the prettiest goal of the game with 4:11 left in the opening half. He positioned himself deep in the corner of Marina’s defensive zone, stole the ball from a d-pole, charged to the back of the net, juked and then blew past the same d-pole, wrapping around to the front of the net, where he easily scored.
Duchon added another goal 40 seconds later, with Tyler Miller earning the assist. Casey Mais then delivered another of his patented length-of-field clearing runs that turned into a goal when nobody stepped up to challenge him in the offensive zone. That allowed Los Al to take a 7-0 lead at the close of the half.
The Griffins kept up the pressure in the second half, and right from the start, as Jace Heller scored an unassisted goal just 15 seconds into the third quarter.
Tyler Miller was the beneficiary of Marina’s goalie carrying the ball over the centerline in an attempt to clear the ball, only to have it intercepted by Chris Hawk, who found Miller all alone in front of an empty net to earn the score. Brandon Ezell closed out the third quarter, scoring on an assist from Tyler Miller to take a 10-1 advantage with just two minutes to play in the third.
The Griffins refused to slow down in the fourth as Jenks scored a goal 30 seconds into the period, but paying a big price for it by getting flattened just as he let the ball fly from 8 yards outside the net. The ball went in, and Jenks popped back up, unhurt.
Los Al’s crisp movements then continued on offense as Duchon ripped a shot from 15 yards away at the 9:52 mark.
Christian Papadopolous then got in on the scoring action. Following a rebound and a scrum in front of Marina’s net, Papadopolous lined up a 15 footer, sinking a slow roller to go ahead 13-2.
Jenks added his third goal of the game and Casey Mais got into the scoring column again with an assist to Cody Miller. He scored on a fast break with five seconds remaining in the game.
Statistically, the Griffins dominated every aspect of the game. They out shot Marina 35 to 12. They had 42 ground balls to Marina’s 21. Casey Mais led the Griffins with six, followed by Josh Jenks with five and Cody Miller with four. Recent call-up Blake Johnson was one of six players who had three each.
Los Al won 9 of 15 face-offs and successfully cleared 30 out of 32 attempts. Jackson Browner only had to record two saves, thanks to Los Al’s tough defense in front of him.
Jenks, Cody Miller and Tyler Miller led Los Al with three goals each, followed by Duchon with two goals and an assist. Mais, Heller and Ezell each added a goal and an assist.
Los Alamitos will return to action with a road game against Corona del Mar, which captured the CIF title with a victory against Palos Verdes in the final last year. That game will start at 12 p.m.
Junior Varsity
At McAuliffe, Los Al could manage only two goals as they went down to defeat against Marina by a final of 4-2.
The first quarter ended in a scoreless tie, but Los Al was whistled for four penalties versus a single penalty for Marina, killing momentum early in the game for the Griffins.
Jake Householder opened the scoring for Los Al with a goal at 8:31 of the second period on an assist from Tommy Lyons.
However, Marina scored twice, putting the Griffins down 2-1 at the half.
Joey Weinman knotted the score at 2-2 early in the third on another assist by Lyons. Both teams failed to score for the balance of the period in a back-and-forth battle, setting up a decisive final period.
Marina tipped the game in its favor, scoring twice, despite seven shots by the Griffins.
Part of the Griffins problem may have been with face-offs, since Los Al won only 2 of 9 for the game. They did fire off 20 shots, but struggled to find the back of the net.
Kevin Judge and Jayden Silva led the team with five groundballs each out of 24 total.
