Foothill boys win another SoCal title

MANHATTAN BEACH - Foothill’s boys lacrosse team wasn’t about to panic after falling behind early in Friday’s U.S. Lacrosse-Southern Section championship match at Mira Costa High.

After falling behind, 2-0, in the first four minutes, the Knights regrouped and went on to defeat Loyola of Los Angeles, 10-7, to win their third consecutive Southern California title in front of 1,431 fans.

“It was a good night,” Foothill coach Jon Fox said. “It’s amazing, we’re just peaking at the right time.”

Foothill had to rally from a 6-1 deficit against Corona del Mar to win, 10-8, in the county title match Tuesday night at Irvine Stadium.

Foothill had no trouble overcoming its early deficit against Loyola.

“Everybody did their job,” Fox said. “We got behind early again, but we came through. I knew we would be OK.”

Foothill (20-5) was led by sophomore attack man Cameron Cole, who scored four goals, and sophomore midfielder Cooper Pickell, who had three goals. Senior midfielder Chris Cole added two goals.

“It was another team effort, everyone was giving it to me,” Cameron Cole said. “We were just sticking to the game plan that we have every year.”

“We were kind of slow coming out,” Pickell added. “We didn’t know much about the team or how their offense was and who their players were. Once we got adjusted, we just started playing our lacrosse.”

Foothill led, 6-3, at halftime and extended the lead to 8-3 on two goals by Cameron Cole in the third quarter.

Pickell scored a goal with 7:59 remaining in the contest to put Foothill ahead, 10-4.

Loyola (16-1) made one last charge, cutting the lead to 10-7 with 54 seconds left on a goal by Nick McCormack. But the Cubs were unable to complete the comeback.

Foothill goalie Nathan Kleponis had 10 saves on 14 attempts before giving way to Josh Giglio in the fourth quarter.

“It was tough," Fox said, "we were getting beat on the ground balls, but when we finally started getting some possessions, we turned it around a little bit.”

McCormack led Loyola with three goals.

Contact the writer: tburt@ocregister.com