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Los Alamitos girls hold onto county title
The undefeated Griffins make the most of their balanced scoring to beat Foothill, 12-8, in the U.S. Lacrosse Division I playoffs.
LAGUNA HILLS - Los Alamitos' girls lacrosse team wasn't about to be denied in its quest for a second consecutive county title.
Tuesday night, the Griffins accomplished that task, defeating Foothill, 12-8, in the U.S. Lacrosse Division I South finals at Laguna Hills High.
The top-seeded Griffins (20-0) move on to the Southern California finals on Friday at 5:30 p.m. against Redondo Union of Redondo Beach at Valencia High.
Click here to see photos from this game and the boys county championship game.
"We're very excited," Los Alamitos coach Meredith Meyran said. "Foothill was an awesome team and played us so hard the entire time. That game could have gone either way.
"I'm really proud of my girls for playing hard the whole time and really just executing our game plan."
Los Alamitos had a balanced scoring attack led by Jullie Crowell (three goals) and Ashley Actkinson (three goals). Shaina Denny and Melissa Hastie had two goals each for the Griffins.
Goalkeeper Natalie Richards had another solid performance with 10 saves.
Courtney Valdez led No.3 seed Foothill (12-3) with five goals.
Top-seeded Los Alamitos had a quick start, jumping to a 7-1 lead with 4:30 left in the first half. The Griffins led, 8-3, at halftime, but Foothill got back into the match in the second half.
Foothill cut the lead to 8-5 on a goal by Lindsay Alex with 17:09 left.
Los Alamitos eventually regained control, moving out to an 11-6 lead on a goal by Hastie with 9:18 remaining.
"This was just not our day," Foothill coach Brian Cross said. "The ball was on the ground and we couldn't pick it up."
Foothill was able to make it a game in the second half.
"We reminded them what they were supposed to do and they did it," Cross said. "We edged closer."
But in the end, Los Alamitos had too much offensive firepower and a stronger defense.
It was the second year in a row that Los Alamitos has defeated Foothill in the county finals. The Griffins won last year's title match, 15-10.
"I feel like we just came out harder than we have in a while," Actkinson said. "We played a lot of challenging teams, but we definitely brought out our A game today."
Los Alamitos, which is also out to defend its Southern California title, will be facing a Redondo Union team that defeated Cate, 14-8, on Tuesday.
