Beckman turns it on in second half

IRVINE – Beckman’s girls lacrosse team broke open a close match with a strong second half effort to defeat Mission Viejo, 14-7, in the second round of the U.S. Lacrosse Division 1 South playoffs at Hicks Canyon Elementary School.

The third-seeded Patriots (18-2) move on to meet Los Alamitos in the semifinals Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at Aliso Niguel. The match was originally scheduled for 7 p.m. but moved Friday.

Los Alamitos defeated Tesoro, 19-7, on Thursday. Beckman lost to Los Alamitos, the defending champion, in the semifinals last year.

“They got all the skills to play and win on Saturday,” Beckman coach Tom Messmer said of his team. “In other years, there has been a run-away team.

“This is anybody’s to be had. Nobody can take this for granted. It’s nice to see a real horse race instead of somebody running away with it."

Messmer’s daughter, Abbey, led the way, scoring seven goals. Allie Lehner had four saves and goalie Abby Baeza had a big game with 15 saves for Beckman.

Beckman led, 6-4, at halftime. No. 6 Mission Viejo (14-5) closed the gap to 6-5 on a goal by Samantha Keary early in the second half.

But the Patriots regained control and took a 10-6 lead on a goal by Messmer with approximately 12 minutes remaining.

Messmer’s goal with three minutes left put Beckman ahead, 13-7, just about ending Mission Viejo’s hopes of pulling off an upset and avenging last year’s second round loss to Beckman.

“We closed the gap grew a lot,” Mission Viejo coach Renate Schmidt said. “It was a close halftime score. We got to work on that finishing 15 minutes of the second half.”

Beckman jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the opening minutes before Mission Viejo got untracked. Megan Armes scored two of her three goals at the end of the first half to cut the lead to 5-4.

“We had some sleeping bags out there at the start of the game,” Schmidt said. “They took a nap. They woke up and they closed that four goal deficit. Then Beckman woke up and kept running with it.

“We had an excellent year and an excellent ride.”

In another girls Division I game:

Santa Margarita 12, El Toro 11: Adrienne Anderson, Bri Richards and Carlie McNiff each scored three goals to lead the Eagles (14-3) past the Chargers in a second-round game at El Toro. Kylie Gilmour led El Toro with four goals.

Anderson scored with 10 seconds left to help the Eagles holds off the Chargers, who rallied after falling behind 6-3 at halftime.

The Eagles had lost to the Chargers by one goal in overtime earlier this season.

Santa Margarita advances to face Foothill, which defeated Corona del Mar, 19-10, on Thursday.

Saturday's semifinal schedule:

Contact the writer: tburt@ocregister.com