Poway Falls to Torrey Pines in Boys Lacrosse Final

After losing to La Costa Canyon in last year's final and falling to Poway earlier this season, the Torrey Pines high boys lacrosse team was ready for Saturday's San Diego Section championship game with the Titans. It helped that the fourth-seeded Falcons had knocked off No. 1-seeded La Costa Canyon in the semis.

Trailing 4-3 at the end of the first quarter, the Falcons shut out Poway in the second period, taking a 5-4 lead at halftime and eventually pulling away to a 10-7 victory and their fourth title and first since 2007. Poway, which won the first boys lacrosse championship in 2002, has now finished as runner-up twice.

“This is what we’ve been working towards all season,” said Falcon sophomore Lucas Gradinger who had a goal and five assists against the Titans. “We know how it feels to lose in the finals, which makes this win a lot sweeter.”

Along with Gradinger, Torrey Pines was led by juniors Andrew Perkins and Sean Doyle who eached tallied a hat trick. Chris Verne had three goals and Matt Landon scored twice for the Titans.

Poway pulled even in the third quarter at 6-6 but could only score once more over the final quarter and a half.

Both Torrey Pines and Poway had a tough road to Saturday’s championship game at Westview High. Each team came in second in their respective leagues, and each had to beat their league champ in the semis to advance to the final.

Torrey Pines (18-5) pulled off the 11-5 upset against top-seeded La Costa Canyon, a team that was ranked first in California by LAXPower.com, and a team the Falcons had not defeated in the last four seasons.

Poway (14-4) had a similar path to the final, defeating rival and league champion Rancho Bernardo in overtime 6-5 for their first win over the Broncos in three tries this year.

“We’re proud of our team. Our 10 seniors got us all the way to the championship,” said Titans coach Paul Sanit. “(Torrey Pines) just out-played us today. They really came on strong toward the end of the year.”

“We accomplished a lot this year just to make it this far,” said Poway senior Verne. “No one thought we’d go this far, but we believed in ourselves and we made it. Of course, it didn’t end the way we wanted.”

In their lone previous meeting this season, Poway was able to edge the Falcons 9-7 in a game that Torrey Pines used for inspiration the rest of the year.

“That game was one of the worst performances we had all season,” said Falcons first-year coach John Zissi. “We viewed it as a turning point in our season. We started controlling the pace of our games and we peaked this last week of the year.”

Torrey Pines already is looking forward to making a repeat run next season. The Falcons will lose only four seniors to graduation and will be bringing back a core group that has Zissi saying “the sky is the limit on what we can accomplish.”

In 2009 Poway made it to the quarterfinals, last year they made it to the semis, and after this year’s CIF finals appearance the Titans will have to wait till next season to see if a title might be the next step they take.

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To find out more about the Titans lacrosse program, visit their website or their Max Preps listing.

For more on Falcons lacrosse, click their website or Max Preps.