Dominating defense lifts Oak Park to lacrosse title

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers TAKING HOME THE HARDWARE- Oak Park's players and coaches celebrate with the Southern California Lacrosse Association trophy after defeating Westlake 13-5 in the championship game ast Sunday afternoon at Newbury Park High. It was Oak Park's second consecutive SCLA title. During halftime of Sunday's Southern California Lacrosse Association championship game between Oak Park and Westlake, the Oak Park players walked over to the bleachers and handed longstem roses to their moms for Mother's Day.

It was the only thing Oak Park gave away all afternoon.

Behind an airtight defense and an opportunistic offense, Oak Park defeated Westlake 13-5 at Newbury Park High to capture its second consecutive SCLA title.

Senior Blair Bennett led the Oak Park attack with four goals. Brett Zeola and Grayson Phillips each added a pair of scores.

"It was very important that we got out ahead in the championship match," said Zeola, who navigated his way through threequarters of the field to log the game's first goal at the 10:40 mark of the opening quarter.

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers LOOKING FOR A CREASE- Trevor Goehring of Oak Park charges down the field with his eyes on the Westlake goal. "It's a big game, and we wanted to get the butterflies out, put a goal in and get the momentum. It was a great game. Congrats to Westlake for getting here. They played well, and hopefully we'll see them again."

Goals by Nick O'Bryen and Bennett helped Oak Park open up a 30 lead with 58 seconds remaining in the first period.

Westlake answered back with scores by Cort McGee and Travis Abraham to make it a 3-2 contest with 7:58 left in the first half.

That's when Oak Park's defense really tightened up.

With Chad Costello, Eric Albers, Matt Caspari, Cory Whelan and goalkeeper Chris DaCar patrolling Oak Park's half of the field, Westlake's offense had a tough time finding any room to operate around the Oak Park goal.

After Abraham's goal midway through the second period, Westlake didn't score again until Patrick Barazza found the back of the net with 10:37 remaining in the match.

"We've got some great players and were able to match up with anything Westlake threw at us," Costello said. "We played solid 'D,' got after ground balls and played fundamental defense today. In the third quarter we really stepped up."

Head coach Michael McGovern, who led Oak Park to the state title game a year ago and a No. 1 club ranking this season, said his team plays well because they're willing to put in the necessary work day in and day out.

"It doesn't matter if it's a championship game or a regularseason game, they're always at it," McGovern said. "They put in a conscious effort during every practice to come out and play hard. That's what these guys do.

"I'm very proud of them because that's what it takes to be a championship team. You have to do it every day. You can't just show up on game days."

Goals by Bennett and Kyle Benton made the score 52 in favor of Oak Park at intermission.

In the third quarter, Oak Park put Westlake away by scoring four unanswered goals. Scores by Matt Luchs and Jake Kraus to open the fourth quarter helped Oak Park expand its lead to 11-2.

Late goals by Abraham and Lee Cohen allowed Westlake to pull within 12-5, but Oak Park's Charlie Larsen finished off Westlake by netting his first score with three seconds remaining.

"I don't think we played physical enough," Westlake head coach Seth Cohen said. "They won the ground balls. The 50/50 balls, they came up with most of those. They scored a lot on their fast breaks, and we didn't get back enough on defense."

Although disappointed with Sunday's result, Cohen said qualifying for the championship game was a big step in the right direction for his program.

"It hurts to lose, but I feel like we've still got a chance to go to the state championship," Cohen said. "I'm confident that after a few days of practice we can fix what's wrong with us."

Oak Park (160) will now advance to this weekend's State Club Lacrosse Championships, which are also being played at Newbury Park High. They'll take on a team from Northern California in the semifinal round on Saturday at 4 p.m.

Westlake (10-5) also qualified for state tournament. They took part in a playin game on Wednesday afternoon at Medea Creek Middle School. A victory on Wednesday would've put Westlake in a semifinal match on Saturday at noon.

The state championship game will be played Sunday at 4 p.m.