Over the next few weeks, LaxRecords will look back at the 2016 season with notes on what happened in championship games, notable milestones and any surprises or fun facts that occurred.
July will kick off our first-ever Looking Ahead features with an in-depth look at underclassmen to watch, what milestones could be reached and the teams to watch in 2017.
Today, LaxRecords.com looks back at the 2016 boys’ lacrosse season with Season Rewind: California.
Championships
LA/Ventura
Loyola-Los Angeles (Los Angeles) got for goals from Sean Smith in a 7-6 overtime win over Palos Verdes (Palos Verdes Estates, California) in the Los Angeles championship game on May 11. Smith scored the game winning goal in overtime.
North Coast CIF I
David Spencer had four assists and two goals to help Monte Vista (Danville, California) to a 14-6 win over De LaSalle (Concord, California) in the North Coast CIF Division I title. The Mustangs finished the year 22-1* to win the program’s fifth section title.
Joey Piombo scored three goals in helping Monte Vista to a 4-0 lead in the first quarter. The game was tied at the half, but the Mustangs scored eight unanswered goals.
Monte Vista was undefeated on the field as they forfeited their opening game of the year against North Coast CIF II champion Marin Catholic (Greenbrae, California) for unintentionally using an illegal player.
Orange County
Photo from Corona del Mar Twitter account.
Corona del Mar (Newport Beach, California) defeated the 2015 Orange County champion St. Margaret’s Episcopal (San Juan Capistrano, California) 11-9 to win the 2016 title.
The Sea Kings trailed by one goal (9-8) at the start of the fourth quarter, but the defense, led by goalie Nick Guizan, shut out the Tartans in the final frame. The win snapped a three-game playoff losing streak to the Tartans for the Sea Kings.
Ryan Meckler was chosen as the game MVP for playing big on defense and scooping up four ground balls. Jason Simaan won 10 face offs. Jordan Greenhall and Will Favreau each scored four goals in the victory.
Nick Shanks led St. Margaret’s with three goals.
San Diego Open CIF
Poway (California) defeated Torrey Pines (San Diego, California) 7-6 to win its second straight section title on May 21. The Titans scored the first three goals of the game and took a 5-2 lead into halftime.
Sophomore goalie Kellan Cutting made 15 saves in the game, including a clutch save with 15 seconds left in the game.
San Diego Section Division I
Santa Fe Christian
Santa Fe Christian (Solana Beach, California) defeated San Marcos (California) 6-5 to win its first section championship, in what was also their first title game appearance.
Hank Ontiveros scored five goals and senior David Divjak scored the other goal for the Eagles. Santa Fe Christian finished the year with five straight wins.
Ontiveros finished the year with 78 goals and 18 assists.
WCAL
St. Ignatius Prep (San Francisco) defeated Bellarmine Prep (San Jose, California) 12-9 on May 13 to win its seventh consecutive West Catholic Athletic League title.
The Wildcats are undefeated in WCAL play and have won every league title since they joined the conference.
Surprise, Surprise
This surprise pick was more on my end than on a national level. Earlier this year, LaxRecords reported that Coronado (California) senior, Anthony DeMaio had become California’s all-time scoring leader. At the time, he became the player with the most known and reported goals and points.
However, after the story was released, I was notified and later confirmed that former Foothill-Santa Ana (Santa Ana, California) and current Denver Pioneer, Nate Marano was the all-time leader in the state. Since the state pages do not get updated until the end of each season, I opted to wait until the end of the year before reporting the update.
After all is tallied, DeMaio did end up becoming California’s all-time leading scorer. The Boston University commit finished with 391 career points, besting Marano’s 361. Marano is still the state’s all-time known goal leader with 269.
Notable Milestones
San Ramon Valley (Danville, California) head coach Peter Worstell won his 200th career game with a 19-0 win over Granada (Livermore, California) on April 15. Worstell has been head coach of the Wolves since 2002 where he has compiled a 205-97 record.
St. Ignatius Prep (San Francisco) head coach Chris Packard won his 150th game in the WCAL semifinals, a 17-1 win over Archbishop Mitty (San Jose, California) on May 11. Packard has compiled a 151-18 record since taking over the Wildcats in 2009.
La Costa Canyon (Carlsbad, California) head coach Jesse Foss won his 100th career game on April 20 with a 19-5 win over Rancho Bernardo (San Diego, California). Foss has a 103-31 career record as head coach of the Mavericks.
In addition to DeMaio’s achievement, fellow senior Samuel Harnisch completed his career among California’s best. The Denver commit finished with 305 career points and 231 career goals. He is just one of six known players in California history to reach 300 career points.
Three players reached that plateau this season. DeMaio, Harnisch and Noah Wolfe from Aptos (Aptos, California). Aptos finished his career with 302 career points on 168 assists and 134 goals.
Top Performers
El Segundo (California) junior, Cory Lund, had an impressive season, posting four games with at least 10 points and three with 12 in a single game this season.
Lund’s teammate, senior Preston Quaschnick, had the most know points in a single game of any California player with a 14-point game against Beverly Hills (California) on April 8.
San Diego (California) senior, Elliott Rodriguez, had the most known goals of any California player with 88 this season.
DeMaio led the state in points (128) and assists (58) this year.