Isabelle Chiu
Online Sports Editor
Although Mira Costa’s boys lacrosse team had a better Bay League season than than the last, the Mustangs still lost in the first round of California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) playoffs.
The Mustangs ended their 2016 season after they fell to Westlake High School 14-7 in an away game on Tuesday in the first round of CIF playoffs. The team was leading 6-3 at halftime, but due to Costa’s self-inflicted penalties, Costa was outscored 11-1 in the second half.
“Westlake is a similar team to PV since they both try to control the pace of the team by keeping it at a high pace,” junior Casey Bonner said. “We figured if we just controlled the pace then we would control the game. In the first half we did a great job of doing that and went into the 2nd half with the lead but we didn’t hold on to it. “
Costa started off strong with two goals from junior Ryan Gustafson. Westlake responded back with a goal and attempted to shut down senior Zane Crandall with a two pole play. Even so, the Mustangs extended their lead with two goals from Bonner to end the first quarter 4-1.
“We usually don’t come out firing like we did yesterday in the first quarter,” Bonner said. “How we played — that was a once in a lifetime thing. We just went hard from the first whistle in that quarter to the last whistle.”
The Mustangs maintained possession of the ball through the majority of the second quarter, which opened up with another goal from Bonner. A few minutes later, Westlake scored twice. Crandall scored off a pass from senior Nash Hale to end the first half with Costa leading by three points, 6-3.
“We played the best in the first half,” senior Tyler Maruyama said. “We were doing a better job of taking advantage of the opportunities they gave us and we did a better job on defense.”
The game started going downhill for Costa in the beginning of the second half. The Mustangs gave up six consecutive goals in the beginning of the third quarter, losing their lead within the first three minutes. Bonner scored once to bring Costa to 9-7 Westlake with 4:30 left in the quarter. Self-inflicted penalties cost Costa another goal, ending the third quarter 10-7.
“I think we went into the second half in the right mindset, but we didn’t carry out what we discussed, which is why we lost the lead so quickly,” Bonner said. “When the defense fell apart, the game fell apart.”
It was too late for the Mustangs to come back in the fourth quarter. Westlake took advantage and effectively executed its man-up plays when Costa had three minutes of non-releasable penalties to score four more goals to end the game 14-7.
“In the second half we didn’t really keep our composure and really the fact that those penalties were locked in were really killing us,” Bonner said. If we had eliminated at least half of those penalties it would have gone better.”
The team ended its 2016 season at 12-7 overall and 3-3 in Bay League. Costa was ranked #12 going into playoffs, and its CIF run this year ended in the same place as last year, in the first round of playoffs. Bonner believes that if the current underclassmen step up, the team will be in good shape for next season.
“If the sophomores do their job and they practice hard in the offseason and work on their offense and strong hands and just get a good feel for the game, we will be in a pretty good position for next year,” Bonner said.
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