The most successful season in Dos Pueblos boys lacrosse history came to an end on Wednesday in the CIF-SS Div. 3 Semifinals at Scott O’Leary Stadium.
Dos Pueblos held a 10-6 lead after the third quarter, but Notre Dame stormed back and shocked the Chargers by handing them a 12-10 defeat to advance to Friday’s CIF-SS Finals against Oaks Christian.
The semifinal matchup is the farthest a Dos Pueblos lacrosse team has ever gone in postseason play, capping off an impressive season that included a Channel League championship.
“It is obviously unfortunate the way it went today but it wasn’t for a lack of effort,” Chargers coach Lucas Martinez said. “The guys left everything out there… The way that they played as a team was remarkable.”
Notre Dame came out of the gates swinging, as they began the game with two goals in the first three minutes of play.
However, Dos Pueblos swung right back with three unanswered goals from Daniel Finneran, Roman Christou and Jack Finneran.
The first two scores were assisted by Gus Miller and the third was created by Jack Finneran, who wrapped around the goal and found the back of the net for the 3-2 lead.
The Knights’ Dustin Penchansky then scored his second goal of the contest to tie things up at 3-3 with 6:15 left in the first.
The Chargers dominated the rest of the first quarter, as Cal Denier consistently won faceoffs and the Dos Pueblos offense poured in three more goals in the final 4:30 of the period.
Those three goals came from three different scorers as well, as Daniel Finneran, Orion Prewarski and Chase Carlson found soft spots in the defenses and made Notre Dame pay.
At the end of the first quarter, the Chargers held onto a 6-3 lead.
The second quarter seemed to be heading in the direction of another high scoring affair, with Notre Dame scoring a pair and Dos Pueblos’ Roman Christou netting a goal off an assist from Jack Finneran in the first three minutes.
However, the Charger defense stepped up in a major way to prevent the Knights from scoring for the final 9:35 of the second quarter.
Notre Dame fired 11 shots in that span, but the Dos Pueblos defense and goalie Danny Perez turned them away time after time. Perez ended the night with 17 total saves.
“Danny Perez was an absolute animal tonight,” Martinez said. “He was keeping us in this when we were making some mental errors and giving up too much transition going the other way.”
With the time ticking down, it seemed as though the Chargers would take a two-goal lead into halftime. Jack Finneran had other plans.
The junior fought through several defenders before finding himself in front of the Notre Dame goalie, and he deposited his shot with five seconds left on the clock to give his team an 8-5 halftime lead.
The third quarter was very similar to the second, as once again both defenses stood their ground and each offense netted a pair of goals.
The two teams alternated the scoring, with Dos Pueblos’ goals coming from Prewarski and Miller and Notre Dame’s Kaden Acevedo and Penchansky sneaking shots past the defense.
As they had in every quarter of the game, the Chargers held a three-goal lead at 10-7 at the end of three.
“The first three quarters we played our game really well,” Martinez said. “We won faceoffs, we possessed the ball really well and we dominated time of possession.”
However, the fourth quarter was the complete opposite.
Notre Dame came out of the break on a mission, and they executed with two goals in the opening three minutes of the fourth to cut the Dos Pueblos lead down to 10-9.
Four minutes later, Acevedo scored again for the Knights to tie the game up for the first time since the middle of the first quarter, sending a hush throughout the Dos Pueblos faithful.
From there, Notre Dame rode the wave of the game’s momentum and scored two more goals while causing several Dos Pueblos turnovers.
When the final horn sounded, the Knights had punched their ticket to the CIF Finals and the Chargers were left stunned after being outscored 5-0 in the game’s final quarter.
“In the fourth quarter we had too many mental mistakes, we turned the ball over too much and we gave the other team too many opportunities,” Martinez said. “They took away our biggest advantage in every game, which is the time of possession.
“They have a very, very talented offensive unit and when we made mistakes they made us pay.”
It was a balanced offensive attack for the Chargers in the loss, as four different players ended with two goals: Daniel Finneran, Jack Finneran, Christou and Prewarski.
For Notre Dame, Penchansky collected five goals to lead the team and the game as a whole.
With the loss, Dos Pueblos ends the year with an impressive record of 13-3, with the team’s other two losses coming in the first three games of the season.
“My favorite thing about this team is how they played for each other,” Martinez said. “This team is so close-knit, everyone just gives each other up and the guys work so hard every day in practice and games not for coaches, not for themselves, but for their teammates.”