Boys’ Lacrosse: CdM owns Battle of the Bay
Another Battle of the Bay boys’ lacrosse game resulted in the same outcome as in years past.
The Back Bay belongs to Corona del Mar High for the 12th straight year.
The latest edition of the rivalry took place outside of Newport Beach. The site does not matter whenever the Sea Kings play Newport Harbor.
Twenty-one seconds into Friday’s contest at Jim Scott Stadium, CdM took control. Kenan Ressler scored, and nine different teammates produced a goal as well in CdM’s 17-3 rout on the road.
The Sea Kings continued their dominating start to the season. They improved to 5-0, outscoring opponents, 72-23.
“We talk a lot about that it is not who we play, but it is how we play,” CdM Coach G.W. Mix said. “We stayed pretty focused on that tonight.”
The Sea Kings didn’t allow the Sailors to settle in as the home team. About 3½ minutes in, CdM led, 3-0.
Almost a minute after Ressler’s first of three goals, Will Favreau put away a goal on the man-up advantage. Kyle Young found the back of the net with 8:24 left in the opening quarter.
Newport Harbor (2-6) and goalie Dean Carden managed to shut down CdM the rest of the way in the first quarter. The scoreless streak ended 12 seconds into the second quarter.
The Sea Kings began the second quarter on the man-up advantage, and John Bethel took advantage. The attacker scored, and Favreau, Jake Elisius and Ryan Meckler each recorded a goal in the second quarter.
At halftime, it was all CdM, as it was up, 7-0. The Sailors challenged goalie Kyle Cord only a couple of times in the first half and he came up with stops.
The way things were going CdM looked as though it would blank an opponent for the first time since it beat Kentfield Marin Catholic, 13-0, on April 9, 2015.
During CdM’s winning streak against the Sailors, the Sea Kings had never shut out Newport Harbor. They were 24 minutes away from pulling it off because of stellar play by Cord and defenders Jordan Pakzad, Brennan Greenwald and Landon Whitney, and Nick Puglia winning faceoffs.
Chandler Pearce ended the Sailors’ scoring drought. He put Newport Harbor on the scoreboard, scoring at the 5:24 mark in the third quarter. Patrick Lynch had a goal in the quarter as well.
The Sailors have struggled of late, losing three in a row. Two of those setbacks have come in nonleague play against the top programs in Orange County, CdM and Foothill.
Newport Harbor returns to Sunset League action next week, at Edison on Tuesday and at Jim Scott Stadium against Huntington Beach on Friday. The defending league champion Sailors won’t be going perfect in league for a third straight year, as they dropped their league opener at Huntington Beach, 12-4, on March 17.
“They got a lot more to talk about,” Newport Harbor Coach Mark Todd said of the Sea Kings.
Next for CdM is a home game with Servite on Tuesday and it heads to San Diego Torrey Pines on April 1. Three days later at CdM, the Sea Kings play another quality program from San Diego, Cathedral Catholic.
“Servite is going to be good, [it’s] going to be tough, athletic and physical, and we got to be prepared for that,” Mix said. “Then certainly Torrey Pines is a big challenge for us. [The Falcons] are one of the top programs in the country this year.”
Twitter: @ByDCP
