The San Marcos and Santa Barbara girls lacrosse teams both placed second in their divisions at the Gold Coast Invitational Saturday, San Marcos in CIF D2/D3 and Santa Barbara in CIF D3.
San Marcos won its semifinal game against Birmingham 12-1 and then led Woodbridge 7-5 with 10 minutes to play in the final, before succumbing to the Warriors 9-7.
“We came back from being down at halftime to go up two goals, so that’s positive, but it was a lot of time to protect, and while it wasn’t the result we wanted I am really proud of our effort facing their offense and our much-improved ground ball work,” Royals coach Paul Ramsey said after the game.
Senior Oceanna Baur made her first start in goal for San Marcos and played both games in goal.
“I can’t say enough about Oceanna,” Ramsey said. “She stepped in to fill a role when we needed her and I’m a fan.”
San Marcos improved to 4-2 and then dropped to 4-3 overall. The Royals start Channel League play on March 21 at Cate School.
Woodbridge, which beat perennial CIF-SS D3 power Santa Monica 6-5 in the other semifinal, improved to 7-2 overall.
Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara played Hart in the D3 semifinal, 13-8. Then, in a neck-and-neck final, the Dons lost to Saugus, 10-7.
“They got lucky at the very end with three quick goals, and the clock just ran out for us,” Santa Barbara coach Elayne Blessing said.
Leading scorers for the weekend for the Dons were Daisy Foreman and Ava Hough, and goalie Pepper Marks had 16 saves.
“And our MVP Bridget Blinderman this weekend with assists, goals and forced turnovers helped us tremendously,” Blessing said. “Honorable mention include Kata Olvera and Emma Hall who combined help us win 72% from the draw line.
“It was a fun tournament and looking forward to our next game Tuesday,” hosting Oak Park.