PHOTOS: Santa Monica tops Crean Lutheran with sudden death overtime goal in CIF finals

Crean Lutheran’s Eli Bray battles Ozgood Hawkins for possession Saturday in the CIF final. (Photos courtesy Crean Lutheran Shutterbugs / John Luciano).

Crean Lutheran High School’s boys lacrosse team looked headed for one more victory to cap the best season in school history.

But top-seeded Santa Monica staged a late rally and scored about three minutes into the sudden death overtime to win 9-8 over the No. 2 seeded Saints to capture the CIF Division 3 title at Downey High School Saturday afternoon.

Ozgood Hawkins scored the game-winner, his fourth goal of the day, snapping Crean Lutheran’s 13-game winning streak.

It was the first CIF lacrosse title for Santa Monica.

“That was a great play, it was Ozgood Hawkins who buried the game-winning goal in the top right,” said Santa Monica Coach James Phelan. “That kid had 75 goals going into this game and he’s one of the top young bright stars of Division 3 in LA. We have two more years with him and I know he’s going to bring us more success.”

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It was Crean Lutheran’s first appearance in the CIF finals. It marked the fourth year for the program.

“We have to learn how to honor God, whether we win or whether we lose, this time we get an opportunity to honor God with a very difficult loss, my hope is that the boys become better men through the experience and learn what’s really most important,” said Crean Lutheran Coach Will McMinn.

“I’m very proud of the boys; we didn’t have our best game, that’s OK. Sometimes you have your best game, sometimes you don’t.”

Crean Lutheran (21-3) was led by AJ Bevacqua and Jordan Warners, who had two goals each. Goalie Luke Beteag had 15 saves for the Saints to keep his team close.

Crean Lutheran had four decisive victories in the playoffs, defeating Riverside Poly, San Marcos, University and Canyon.

“The kids did well, everybody worked hard,” McMinn said.

Joaquin Nava and Noah Zucker added two goals each for Santa Monica (17-6), Goalie Jasper Ford had 16 saves.

“He had some point blank saves, he bailed us out a couple times,” Phelan, the Santa Monica coach, said.

Crean Lutheran held a 4-3 lead at halftime and was up 6-5 going into the final quarter. The Saints moved out to an 8-6 lead on a goal by Bevacqua with 9:29 left.

But Santa Monica tied it on goals by Noah Zucker and Pierce Nevell to send the match into overtime.

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com