Sailors fall in girls’ lacrosse semis

IRVINE — It was a season of firsts for the Newport Harbor High girls’ lacrosse team.

In Coach Matt Armstrong’s six-year tenure, the Sailors had never won the Battle of the Bay game against rival Corona del Mar or defeated Trabuco Hills. Both streaks ended this season.

But it was another streak that continued Saturday that ultimately ended the Sailors’ season. No. 6-seeded Newport Harbor lost to No. 2-seeded Foothill, 10-3, in a U.S. Lacrosse Southern Section South Division semifinal game at Portola High.

The Sailors (13-6), who had not won a playoff game since 2010 prior to last year, were making their second straight semifinal appearance. But the opponent and the result were the same; last year the score was 5-1. Newport Harbor still has not beaten Foothill (14-5) in program history.

The belief was there this season, though, especially after the Sailors rallied from a four-goal deficit in the second half to upset No. 3-seeded Trabuco Hills in the quarterfinals.

“We were pumped, we were ready,” said Belmont Abbey-bound Sarah Farley, one of three team captains along with fellow seniors Katie Hendrix (Arizona State) and Jillian Rosten. “Mentally, we thought we could do it.”

Foothill had different ideas. The Knights scored the game’s first three goals and blanked the Sailors for more than 18 minutes to start the game, until junior Adena Rothbard scored a free-position goal with 6:58 remaining in the first half.

Armstrong, a co-coach with Kaleigh Gibbons this season, said his team was doing better at draw controls than in the teams’ first meeting, which was won by Foothill, 11-6, on April 6. Rothbard missed that game due to a concussion. In Saturday’s game, she scored two of her team’s three goals. The three goals was the Sailors’ second-lowest output of the season.

“Foothill always has great defense,” Hendrix said. “I think [Foothill Coach] Kate [Hicks] does a really good job of coaching them, and their other coaches as well. They were doubling, they were tripling, and they made it really difficult for us to get the pass off and make those important plays. So yeah, hat’s off to them, they played great.”

Foothill answered Rothbard’s first goal with a goal in traffic by Emma Gaughran, then the Knights’ Ava Brand scored with 32 seconds left in the half. But, after Farley earned the draw control, Rothbard scored again on a free-position shot to narrow the Sailors’ deficit to 5-2 at halftime.

It stayed that way until midway through the second half. Gaughran and Lauren Kilger, who led everyone with three goals, scored just 32 seconds apart. Foothill suddenly had a 7-2 lead and was starting to pull away.

“I feel like we definitely were [in the game], especially because of our Trabuco win when we were down by four,” said Rosten, a defender. “For the first 13 minutes of the second half, Foothill didn’t score at all. I feel like that was really a testament to our defense really coming together, having worked through this whole year. [We had] new girls coming up from frosh to play at varsity, and just coming and kicking major butt.”

One of those players was sophomore goalie Jade Rettig, who made two saves for the Sailors. But they struggled offensively in the second half Saturday, with Farley netting the team’s only second half goal with 25 seconds remaining in the game.

Senior defender Hayden Allen led the Sailors with three ground balls, while Hendrix, Rothbard, Farley, Elise Skytte and Delaney Knipp had two each. Farley led the team with two draw controls and caused two turnovers, which tied her for the team lead with Allen.

Foothill advances to play top-seeded Mater Dei in the South Division (Orange County) title game on Wednesday at Irvine High. It’s a rematch of last year’s title game, won by the Monarchs.

Newport Harbor, meanwhile, will reflect on what Armstrong called a really successful season. Farley said it was a great season year.

“Those [Trabuco Hills and CdM games] were crazy to win,” Farley said. “Going into this game, we were hoping to pull off another win that we had never had. We didn’t, but those other two were just amazing. We just had a blast. So many tears of joy after so many different games. It was a fun season.”

Armstrong agreed that there were many highlights along the way. The 13 games won on the field was a program record, he said. Newport Harbor also won 13 games last year, but one of them was via forfeit.

“We’re super-proud of the girls,” he said. “They’ve worked really, really hard since last July to get to this point. We really were shooting for the championship, and you know, we’re one game away from it. It would have been nice to have gotten there, but Foothill’s a strong team. We’ve never been able to pull off the victory [against them], and we couldn’t do it today, so hopefully next year.”

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