Foothill boys battle back to keep O.C. title

Foothill’s boys lacrosse team has done it again.

The No. 2-seeded Knights rallied from a five-goal deficit to defeat top-seeded Corona del Mar, 10-8, on Tuesday night in the championship game of the U.S. Lacrosse-Southern Section Orange County playoffs in front of 2,145 at Irvine High.

Foothill, which has won two consecutive Southern California titles, will go for a third crown on Friday at 7:30 p.m. when it faces Los Angeles section winner, Loyola, at Mira Costa High in Manhattan Beach.

“They just kept fighting, I don’t know how they did it,” Foothill coach Jon Fox said of his players. “First of all, they stopped getting penalties. The refs were real tight early on and called some things we didn’t agree with.

“It really affected the game early and once they started letting everyone play, we started getting (going) on offense. This team showed a lot of heart, it was an incredible comeback.”

Corona del Mar (20-2) led, 6-1, early in the second quarter before the Knights (19-5) began to rally.

“We had a lot of intensity and focus when we first came out,” Corona del Mar coach Mark Todd said. “We just couldn’t sustain it all game.

“They did what we expected them to do, we just couldn’t stop them.”

Foothill was led by Cameron Cole, who had four goals and his brother Chris Cole, who had three goals.

“There are no words that can express this game,” Cameron Cole said. “It was a whole team effort, without our whole team, none of this could have happened.”

“We’ve been planning this victory all year, ever since day one,” added Chris Cole. “Each and every day, we’ve been using CdM as a motivational tool.

“We’ve been preparing every day in the weight room and out doing speed training, each and every day working hard to try and defeat CdM.

“We knew we were going to face them in the finals.”

Foothill also got a solid performance from goalkeeper Nathan Kleponis, who had 13 saves.

Corona del Mar was led by Noah Molnar and Daniel Noto, who had two goals each.

The Sea Kings appeared to on their way to their first county title when they moved out to a 6-1 lead on a goal by Ryan Mix with 8:33 left in the second quarter.

But Foothill caught fire, scoring four consecutive goals at the end of the second quarter to cut the Sea Kings lead to 7-6 at halftime.

Cameron Cole’s goal with 8:07 left in the third quarter put Foothill ahead, 8-7, and the Knights never relinquished the lead.

A goal by Tucker Rowe with 7:21 left made it 10-8. After that Kleponis and the rest of the defense, shut down the Sea Kings.

“It’s amazing, we were only returning one starter,” Fox said. “These guys worked hard all season. We took some blows early on when we lost, but that just prepared us for tonight.

“They played as a team and never gave up and Kleponis was amazing in the goal.”

Contact the writer: tburt@ocregister.com