Foothill denies Corona del Mar the Orange County title again

IRVINE — Corona del Mar High is no stranger to reaching the U.S. Lacrosse Southern Section South Division boys’ final. The Sea Kings made their second trip in as many years on Wednesday.

The only other time CdM had reached this point in consecutive years was in 2009 and 2010, and each time, it lost to Foothill.

The Sea Kings faced that same school in the South Division championship, and they suffered the same fate as the previous two meetings with Foothill on the big stage in Orange County.

The No. 3-seeded Knights upset No. 1 CdM, 9-3, at Irvine High, ending the Sea Kings’ season and their 28-game winning streak against county opponents.

The Knights won their seventh county crown. In three of those instances, they downed CdM after losing to CdM in the regular season.

The programs played on March 18, with the Knights losing at CdM, 11-4. Foothill dominated this time around.

Foothill (14-10) advances to play Los Angeles Loyola (20-4) for the U.S. Lacrosse Southern Section championship at Palos Verdes High on Saturday at noon. Loyola moved on by beating Palos Verdes, 11-5, in the North Division final on Wednesday.

Foothill, not CdM (18-3), will get a chance to avenge a loss to Loyola. A year ago, the Cubs claimed the Southern Section, topping CdM, 10-6.

Loyola also handed Foothill a 13-7 setback on March 11. The good thing for the Knights is the next contest with the Cubs won’t be at Loyola.

The Knights earned the chance to see Loyola again. After going down, 1-0, in the first quarter, Foothill responded by producing all of the five goals in the second quarter.

Joshua Fox evened things up for Foothill, faking a shot near the crease, before getting one past goalie Kyle Cord (10 saves) 2½ minutes into the second quarter. During the scoring play, the referees called a slashing penalty on CdM, and Ellis Geis took advantage. Two seconds before CdM could kill the one-minute penalty, Geis received a pass from Cole Falbo, ripping a shot from up top and into the net. The Knights took a 2-1 lead at the 8:30 mark, and Falbo and Fox helped extend the advantage.

Fox added his second goal, and in the final two minutes before halftime, Falbo recorded two unassisted goals. The Knights went into halftime with a 5-1 lead, and it stayed that way going into the fourth quarter.

Goalie Austin Mann, who made six saves, had a lot to do with Foothill shutting out CdM in the second and third quarters, as well as Miles Smart winning faceoffs.

The Knights dominated possession in the second quarter. No one scored in the third quarter, and CdM had chances.

On four straight occasions, the Sea Kings were on the man–up advantage, and they failed to do anything.

“The defense was really, really amazing,” said Foothill coach Jon Fox, whose team won its first South Division crown since 2014, the same year Foothill won the section title.

The Sea Kings struggled to get anything going after Will Favreau’s goal with 96 seconds remaining in the opening quarter. From that point on, CdM went almost 30 minutes without a goal.

Sachin Gokhale ended CdM’s drought with 7:25 to go. Forty seconds later, the Sea Kings got within, 6-3, on Eric Fries’ goal.

But Foothill distanced itself from CdM in the final five minutes. Falbo delivered his third goal, as did Fox, and Andrew Cumming added his second goal.

The Knights became the first county school to knock off CdM since St. Margaret’s defeated the Sea Kings, 8-6, in the South Division semifinals on March 9, 2015.

“The referees let them possess the ball and throw the ball around, throw the ball around, throw the ball around, and they ate a lot of clock,” CdM coach G.W. Mix said of the Knights. “They had a good game plan that they executed, and the referees allowed them to execute.”

The Knights hope to execute one more time and win a seventh section championship.