Huntington Beach opens lacrosse playoffs with win

Seventh-seeded Huntington Beach held off an upset bid by No. 10 JSerra to capture a 10-6 victory Tuesday night in the opening round of the U.S. Lacrosse Division 1 South playoffs.

The host Oilers (15-2) notched the first boys lacrosse playoff victory for the school in advancing to a second-round game Thursday on the road against No. 2 St. Margaret's at 4:30 p.m.

"The kids have been working so hard for the entire season and we knew that we needed to elevate our game to the next level against someone as athletic as JSerra," Huntington Beach coach Brian Dunn said. "We've got to minimize mistakes in the future, but other than that, we're looking good."

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Senior midfielder Steven Koressel led the Oilers with four goals. Six other players contributed a goal each.

Huntington Beach started quickly, taking a 3-0 lead in the first nine minutes on goals by Koressel, Grant Lowman and Tim Francis.

But JSerra bounced back and scored five consecutive goals, the final one coming by Cole Schleppy midway through the second quarter, to take a 5-3 lead.

Koressel countered with two goals and Carsten Beith added another to put the Oilers ahead, 6-5, at halftime.

Huntington Beach led, 7-5, after three quarters and broke the match open by outscoring JSerra, 3-1, in the final quarter.

"They kind of crawled back into it a little, but we kept our composure and kept fighting," Dunn said. "This is one of the first games that we were really disciplined all the way through."

JSerra (10-7) was led by Jake Lucier, who had three goals and goalkeeper Ryan Suttle, who had 13 saves.

"We told them all week that this was a well coached team and you had to take care of the ball more so than even scoring goals," JSerra coach Max Ritz said. "But we didn't do that, and that's part of the maturing of a team.

"We took a lot of big strides, I don't want to diminish the seniors because they did an amazing job. This is a good first step."

Huntington Beach also got a strong performance by sophomore goalie Trevor Jackson, who had nine saves.

In other boys lacrosse:

No. 5 Corona del Mar 13, Newport Harbor 9: Michael Keasey and Connor Canale each scored three goals to lead the Sea Kings past the visiting Sailors in a first-round game of the Division I playoffs.

Michael Ortlieb had 17 saves in goal for Corona del Mar.