St. Margaret's Sticks It to Corona del Mar, 13-3

Both Corona del Mar and St. Margaret’s already have wrapped up league titles, so Wednesday night’s nonleague showdown between two of this season’s top teams in boys lacrosse was all about playoff seedings. One team solidified its ranking, while the other team, in the words of its coach, still has some work to do.

Second-ranked St. Margaret’s put on a passing clinic and held fifth-ranked Corona del Mar to its lowest scoring game of the season for a 13-3 victory at Tartans Athletic Field in San Juan Capistrano. The game was originally scheduled for April 19 at Newport Harbor High but was postponed because of maintenance work on the stadium's lights.

“We knew they would be tough, but we’ve been preparing for them for a while,” said a smiling Mitchel Pok, who finished with two goals and an assist for the Tartans.

St. Margaret’s improved to 12-1 with one game remaining, at Servite on Friday. The Sea Kings dropped to 11-3 and have two games left: today at home against Pacific Coast League rival Beckman, and Saturday afternoon at Palos Verdes.

The victory by the Trinity League champions likely will give the Tartans the second seed behind No. 1 Foothill and a first-round bye when the boys and girls playoff brackets are announced Saturday evening by the Orange County Chapter of U.S. Lacrosse. The top four teams in each division will get a bye and host the winner of four first-round games, which begin next Tuesday, at home on May 5.

“It was a big game toward that,” Tartans coach Gerry Manning said. “I really don’t know anything about [the seedings], but I thought we came out and played really well tonight. They did everything we asked them to do, which with high school kids doesn’t always happen, but we rode well and cleared the ball very well.”

The final score against Corona del Mar was indeed surprising, especially since the Sea Kings have been playing consistently well all season. They have been averaging 13 goals a game and scored 11 in a one-goal loss to top-ranked Foothill two weeks ago. But they came out flat against the Tartans and were never in the game after trailing only 3-1 after the first quarter.

“It was just one of those nights. We were terrible,” Sea Kings coach G.W. Mix said. “We couldn’t pass, we couldn’t shoot, we couldn’t play defense. It’s never good to get your [expletive] kicked, but it actually may be good that it happened now. It certainly is a wake-up call for us. We’ve got some work to do to get ready [for the playoffs].”

The Tartans controlled the tempo of the game from the outset. They outshot the Sea Kings, 29-10, for the game, including 21-5 in the first half to take an 8-2 lead. Scott McGowan had one of his best games of the season, setting up his teammates with good passes in front of Sea Kings goalie Michael Ortlieb, who made seven saves.

St. Margaret’s scored three goals within 90 seconds in the second quarter while Corona del Mar went stretches of nearly 11 minutes and 26 minutes between goals.

“We played really well,” said Tartans junior Kent Iizuka, who scored twice and had an assist in the first half. “We moved the ball well. For our offense, it’s important to us to walk the ball around and get good scoring opportunities. I think we did that tonight.”

Added Alex Waller, a sophomore who scored three times and has seven goals in the last two games: “We just used our transition game and moved the ball around.” 

Freshman Hunter Edington also scored a hat trick for St. Margaret’s, while Josh Davis, Matt Duenes and Chase Williams each scored single goals. Tartans sophomore goalie Brandon Suchand needed only four saves for the victory.