Huntington Beach girls’ lacrosse beats Portola for CIF Division 3 crown
DOWNEY — For a Huntington Beach High girls’ lacrosse program in its infancy, the second season was riddled with new experiences.
The first year of CIF Southern Section postseason eligibility will be tough to top, as the Oilers defeated top-seeded Portola 12-9 on Saturday morning in the Division 3 final at Downey High.
Sophomore Lauren Pilkington had four goals to lead Huntington Beach (14-4), an at-large selection in making its first section playoff appearance. Junior Nicole Hazan produced a hat-trick, and junior Maya Ford scored twice.
In control from the start, the Oilers went up 5-0 within a dozen minutes of game action. Junior Devynn Trang found the net 51 seconds into the contest. Ford scored twice in that stretch, and she connected with Hazan for a backdoor goal from a free-position play to cap the run.
Pilkington credited sophomore Summer Vandergrift, who also had a goal, for contributing to the Oilers’ sustained success with a strong performance on the draws.
“Our draw team is definitely super strong,” Pilkington said. “Winning the draw is the first way to win possession, and once you win [the] draw, you don’t stop. You just go straight to goal. … Summer Vandergrift [is a] super strong player, wins the draws, confident on the field, one of our very strongest players.”
A force to be reckoned with for Pacific Coast League champion Portola (20-2), senior Jadyn Zdanavage scored three of her six goals to close out the first half, narrowing the Huntington Beach advantage to 7-4 going into the break.
“I’m just really proud of this group because we’ve never won this many games in a year,” said Zdanavage, who committed to Michigan for cross-country and track and field. “We’ve won 20 this year, and just the growth from where we were in my freshman and sophomore year, it’s been really incredible.
“In league, we never finished higher than third, and this year, we were able to win, beating Woodbridge and Beckman, and we haven’t done very well against those teams in the past. We’ve just been able to grow a lot, and it’s been really cool to see.”
Sophomore Malaika Fawzi’s goal with 12:28 left cut the Huntington Beach lead to 10-7, but the Bulldogs would get no closer. Three minutes later, Zdanavage was denied on a free-position opportunity. The ground ball was scooped up by junior Sofia Giambone, and the ensuing possession turned into Pilkington’s fourth goal. Freshman Megan Romero added her name to the scoresheet with the Oilers’ last marker.
Senior goalkeeper Rachel Levine made two saves for the Oilers. Beyond that, Huntington Beach coach Brian Eisenberg said senior Ella Kelly was a difference-maker on defense.
“Ella Kelly’s one of the best athletes that the school has,” Eisenberg said. “She might be one of the best athletes in the county. She just started playing last [year]. She had won a field hockey championship. She was the MVP of that, and she totally glues our defense together with our goalie.”
Huntington Beach competed in the Sunset League for the first time as a program, their most nervous moment quite possibly being the wait to find out if they would get into the draw after a couple of close losses to Los Alamitos and Edison saw them finish fifth in the six-team league.
Once in the tournament, the Oilers beat San Marcos in the wildcard round, before rattling off convincing wins over Riverside Poly and Simi Valley in the main draw. The next moment of apprehension came late in the semifinals, when Huntington Beach let a lead slip away against second-seeded Temecula Chaparral, but Ford provided the game-winner with about three minutes left in a 9-8 victory at home.
“I don’t remember how much time was on the clock, but I remember I got fouled near the 12-yard line, and I saw that we needed to get a goal,” Ford said of the pivotal goal in the semifinal. “Everyone was kind of telling me that I should just go for it, so when I saw them coming toward me, I just went the other way towards the goal. When I scored, I just saw my friends’ open arms.”
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