Dos Pueblos boys lacrosse battled to an 11-8 win over Huntington Beach in the CIF-SS Div. 2 Quarterfinals on Wednesday at Scott O’Leary Stadium.
The top-seeded Chargers held the Oilers to two goals in the first half and withstood four unanswered goals in the fourth to punch their ticket to the semifinals.
“This is where having 17 seniors really pays off,” Dos Pueblos head coach Lucas Martinez said. “The whole time, when this game started to get a little crazy, I just kept telling them, ‘Hey, we’ve been here before. We have more experience in this playoff scenario than any team in the bracket.’
“We’ve had these guys who played three postseasons. So we really just calmed down, thought about that, and played our game.”
Dos Pueblos will stay at home and host Oaks Christian on Saturday. The start time is to be announced.
The Oilers opened the scoring just under two minutes into the game as Sebastian Alvarez found Ryan Soeltz on the outside, who fired a long shot into the back of the net for the 1-0 lead.
After a few stopped shots, the Chargers brought the game even at 1-1 when Dan Finneran scooped up a ground ball and slotted a shot past the goalkeeper with 7:36 on the clock.
The Oilers responded with a goal by Will Minter off a strong individual effort to make it 2-1, a score that held for the majority of the quarter.
However, with one minute on the clock, Andrew Forsland came up with a steal to give the Chargers a transition opportunity. They took advantage, as Finneran fed a cutting Gus Miller, who scored to tie it at 2-2 with 14 seconds left.
Cal Denier then won the ensuing faceoff and the ball made its way quickly to Jack Finneran, who spun and scored as the final seconds ticked off to give Dos Pueblos a 3-2 lead heading into the second.
The Chargers rode that momentum into the second quarter as Miller and Dan Finneran each scored their second goals of the day in the first four minutes to extend the lead to 5-2.
At the 3:49 mark, Mitchell Maskerey came up with a steal and moved the ball up to Miller, who then dished it off to Jack Finneran.
Jack Finneran put a move on his defender and scored to bring the lead to 6-2, which held into halftime thanks in part to an impressive defensive showing for Dos Pueblos.
“[The defense] played huge, and they’ve really stepped up in the games where we needed them,” Martinez said. “That team had some excellent offensive players. They knew how to attack our defense, and it was really just who was going to execute better.
“Mitchell had a great game, some really timely takeaways. Andrew Forsland played out of his mind. He was everywhere. They started not trying to dodge him because he’s so good on-ball… He just holds down the whole center of our defense. And Danny (Perez) made some huge saves when we really needed him the most.”
The Chargers kicked off the second-half scoring when Miller found Orion Prewarski, who fired a shot from the outside into the net. However, the Oilers got it right back just seven seconds later on a goal by Minter.
The back-and-forth play continued when Jack Finneran scooped up a ground ball deep in the Huntington Beach defense and scored to bring the lead to 8-3 with 9:20 on the clock.
“That game was all about who wanted it more,” Martinez said. “There were tons of 50/50 balls, there were tons of second efforts, and it came down to just the guys putting in the dirty work and getting their heads down, getting the balls.
“We had a bunch of finishes just on the crease where the goalie made a save and we picked it up and short. Those are the goals that you really love as a coach, because it’s obviously not how you drew it up, but it’s all due to grit, it’s all due to tenacity, it’s all due to effort and wanting it.”
The Oilers scored once again on a goal by Soeltz off a scramble for the ball, but Dos Pueblos made it a five-goal lead once again a few minutes later.
Dan Finneran made a move behind the net and dished it off to Parker Bentley, who skipped his shot into the back of the net for the 9-4 lead, which held through the end of the period.
The fourth quarter started with a bang as Huntington Beach’s Cale Burke won the opening faceoff, charged through the defense and scored in seven seconds to cut the deficit to 9-5.
Dos Pueblos answered just over a minute later when Jack Finneran found a cutting Prewarski, who deposited his shot into the net to make it 10-5 with 10:37 remaining.
The Oiler offense then caught fire, rattling off three unanswered goals in the span of three minutes to cut the Charger lead down to 10-8 with 7:18 left on the clock.
However, the Dos Pueblos defense buckled down and held Huntington Beach scoreless down the stretch to secure the win.
“I’m a defensive coach, so I love when the defense is the hero of the game, and those guys are putting in so much work; they really deserve it,” Martinez said.
The final goal came courtesy of Bentley with 2:21 left in the game to put the cherry on top of the quarterfinal victory.
Jack Finneran led the Chargers with three goals while Dan Finneran, Prewarski, Miller and Bentley all scored twice. Dan Finneran and Miller added two assists apiece.
“All season we’ve been a super well-balanced team,” Martinez said. “We never know who’s going to be the guy to step up. If they try to take away one guy, we have other guys that can step up, and I think today we saw that.”