CdM takes out Back Bay rival

CORONA DEL MAR — The first of two pivotal games and Coach Ben Lin felt like taking control.

His Corona del Mar High girls’ lacrosse team already appeared to be in charge, up by three goals against Back Bay rival Newport Harbor Thursday.

Offensively, Lin disagreed with the one-player attack. He tried to pull one of his stars midway through the first half.

“C’mon!” Lin shouted at midfielder Alex Hoover, the player with two goals and contributing to the early success.

“One second!” Hoover responded, visibly upsetting the first-year head coach as she stayed on the field.

Eventually Hoover ran to the sideline and exited. After a brief exchange, the senior returned, trying to follow Lin’s strategy.

It took some time to adjust, but the plan to move the ball around worked in the second half after the Sailors turned it into a one-goal game. Hoover scored twice and assisted on another goal as CdM went on to score five straight times to win, 12-7, at Eastbluff Elementary.

When it ended, Lin looked more relieved than excited.

“It definitely takes a load off my shoulders now that the rivalry game is over,” Lin said. “Now we got Beckman.”

Not much time for Lin and his players to celebrate after beating Newport Harbor for the second straight year. The Sea Kings close out the regular season Monday with a Pacific Coast League showdown at Beckman.

CdM (9-5, 4-1 in league) trails Beckman (13-0, 5-0) by one game. A victory against the No. 6-ranked program in the state by laxpower.com and the Sea Kings will split the league crown with the Patriots.

Lin understands it won’t be easy. The last time these two schools met, Beckman walloped the Sea Kings, 17-7, one day after April Fool’s Day at Eastbluff Elementary.

The Sea Kings made sure not to mess around at home against the Sailors.

They protected their home turf, getting most of the scoring punch from sophomore attacker Hillary Bush (five goals) and Hoover (four goals) and making sure Newport Harbor ended the regular season on a five-game losing streak.

Only one senior competed for the Sailors and that player, Katie Storch, was forced to sit out after picking up two yellow cards before senior attacker Emmily Attyah gave CdM a 5-2 lead with six minutes left in the first half.

The young Sailors rallied, staying within striking distance. Zoe Wolfe scored twice in the last 2:54, cutting the deficit to 6-4 at intermission.

Early in the second half junior attacker Elizabeth Cramer made it closer. Twice she made it a one-goal game.

“We had the momentum going for us,” said Cramer, who led the Sailors with four goals. “We were [right] there. They came out harder.”

The Sea Kings began to execute Lin’s sharing tactic.

They recorded five consecutive goals in an 11:41 span to jump ahead, 12-6. Four different players scored, starting with junior midfielder Adriane Knezevic on an assist by Attyah, followed by Bush on an assist by Hoover, both goals set up from behind the cage.

Then Hoover scored twice, sandwiched in between junior Jennifer Francis’ goal.

“They weren’t going to give it up easy. We weren’t either,” said Hoover, who was second on the team with four groundballs, trailing senior defender Lisa Weglarz’s six. “It just gives us more confidence and it makes us more determined to play harder the next game.

“[The Patriots] beat us bad the first time [last year as well] and then in the second game, which was the last game we had against them [just like this year], we ended up beating them. I’m personally going to put up the biggest fight because I don’t want to lose to them.”

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at [email protected].