Dos Pueblos boys lacrosse kept their historic season alive with a 14-7 victory over University High in the CIF-SS Div. 3 Quarterfinals on Monday at Scott O’Leary Stadium.
The Chargers have now punched their ticket to the CIF-SS Div. 3 Semifinals for the first time in program history, and they get to celebrate with another home game.
Dos Pueblos will welcome Notre Dame High to the Goodland on Wednesday at 5 p.m. with a spot in the CIF title game on the line.
“We come in with confidence and we think we can beat anyone,” Chargers coach Lucas Martinez said of the team’s playoff mindset. “We’re excited to show the rest of the Southern Section what Santa Barbara lacrosse can do, that’s for sure.”
Despite the final score, the University Trojans seemed to dictate the game early as they struck first with a goal just two minutes into the game.
After some back-and-forth play, Dos Pueblos responded with a goal from Davin Patla on the inside to tie the game up at 1-1.
However, the Trojans quickly regained control with back-to-back goals within two minutes of each other to take a 3-1 advantage.
That lead almost lasted until the second quarter, but Dos Pueblos’ Orion Prewarski emerged from a scrum, charged down the field and scored a goal with 12 seconds remaining in the first to give his team some momentum.
The beginning of the second quarter was full of more back-and-forth action, as Daniel Finneran scored for the Chargers but University responded right back with a goal of their own to go up 4-3.
However, that’s when the Chargers began to fire on all cylinders.
On the very next possession, Finneran fought through plenty of contact and defenders on his way to his second goal in as many minutes.
That score sparked a run for Dos Pueblos where they scored seven unanswered goals in the quarter, resulting in a commanding 10-4 lead at halftime.
In that impressive stretch of offensive firepower, Finneran and Gus Miller added on two more goals apiece while Prewarski and Parker Bentley netted a goal as well.
“Our guys just needed to kick off some of the jitters and get back to playing our brand of lacrosse,” Martinez said. “Once we started asserting our will and playing the way that we play, the goals started falling.
“That goalie was really good but the way we play offense we get a lot of shots inside, and that’s hard to stop for any goalie.”
A large piece of that dominant stretch for the Chargers was the stellar faceoff play of Cal Denier, who ended the day winning 23 of 27 faceoffs.
His faceoff success allowed Dos Pueblos to easily get into their offensive sets and maintain momentum from one goal to the next.
“Cal is a unique talent, he’s just so good that it’s sometimes easy to take him for granted,” Martinez said. “I think Cal is the best faceoff guy in the state. He plays with so much heart and so much intensity, he gets the team going.”
Despite the Chargers holding virtually all of the game’s momentum, the Trojans came out of the halftime break on fire, scoring three unanswered goals in the first five minutes of the third to cut the lead down to 10-7.
However, the Dos Pueblos defense buckled down from there and dominated their side of the field, not allowing a goal for the final 19 minutes of play.
“I love when the defense gets their chance to shine, we’ve got three really good athletes on the defensive side,” Martinez said. “Andrew Forsland was on their best attackman and he locked him up after that first quarter.
“Danny Perez had 11 big-time saves, they were momentum saves and I’m really proud of him. Andon (Dexter) and Mitch (Maskerey) are such solid players and they do exactly what they need to do.”
While the defense did their job, the offense tacked on four more goals across the final two quarters to clinch the win.
Those final goals came courtesy of Jack Finneran, who scored twice, Roman Christou and Koa Birchim.
In total, eight different Chargers found the back of the net in the victory.
Dos Pueblos will now play for a chance at the CIF title game on their home field on Wednesday.
“We love playing [at home] and for us, it’s just about confidence,” Martinez said. “These guys play for each other, we’ve got a real tight-knit group here.”