Members of the Huntington Beach girls lacrosse team and coaching staff gather with the CIF championship plaque. (Photos: Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone.)
Huntington Beach High School’s girls lacrosse team jumped out to a quick start and went on to defeat top-seeded Portola 12-9 in the Division 3 championship match Saturday morning at Downey High School.
Both teams were appearing in the CIF finals for the first time and it was the first year that HB could participate in the playoffs.
“First year, first championship,” said HB Coach Brian Eisenberg. “They had a mini-season last year just to get the program going. This was our first full season that we were eligible for playoffs. I can’t ask for anything more. The girls are incredible people, I can’t stress that enough.”
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The Oilers jumped out to a 5-0 lead and led 7-4 after the first half. HB held a five-goal lead early in the second half but Portola (20-2) cut the lead to 9-6 on a goal by Jadyn Zdanavage. However, HB eventually moved out to a five goal lead again.
No. 3-seeded Huntington Beach (16-4) was led by (16-4) was led by Lauren Pilkington, who had four goals and Nicole Hazen, who scored three goals. Maya Ford had two goals for the Oilers.
“Throughout the game I was super confident with my team,” said Pilkington. “My team is my number one priority. I’m always looking out for them, and they’re looking out for me. Confidence also plays a big role in my game. If I don’t have confidence obviously it’s not going to show on the field. I need to be confident and I need to have my players backs.
“This is our second year, we’re the underdogs and coming from nothing, some of these players have never played before and winning a CIF championship for our second year is huge and I’m so proud of them.”
Zdanavage, the county’s leading scorer with 134 goals, scored six goals to lead Portola. Jadyn Kohan had one goal and four draw controls, Malaika Fawzi had a goal and four draws and Alyana Cabanilla one goal.
“I think they were the better team today,” said Portola Coach Jeralyn Newton. “We were dropping balls, our passes were off, our shots weren’t on and we also lost a lot of the draws. That was the most goals we’ve been down by this whole season, so I think not having had the experience to try and comeback previously in the season hurt us.
“Not that my girls didn’t play well, they did their thing and they battled the whole time. It was a good game. At the end of the day, they’re still proud of the legacy they built. The fact they we were even here right now is huge. We’ve had some girls who had incredible seasons and this season wasn’t even supposed to happen. It’s pretty special.”
It marked the final match for Zdanavage, who wound up with 332 career goals.
“We really just gave it our all,” she said. “And that’s really what’s important. Huntington Beach played an amazing game, all the credit to them, they really played awesome. But I’m just really proud of our group, we never made it this far ever in history, so it’s just really awesome to see what we were able to do.
“And even though we didn’t win, we left it all our there and that’s all we could have done.”
“Three hundred goals just in her high school career with Portola, I believe 135 goals (134) this season alone, four sport varsity athlete, captain, she’s just a star and she did everything she can,” added Newton. “This was her last lacrosse game so I’m sure it’s emotional. It’s her lasting legacy, she has set the tone for Portola girls lacrosse and that’s just so cool.”
Portola, the Pacific Coast League champion, finished with a school record 20 wins.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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