CdM girls’ lacrosse drops season opener to Los Alamitos

The referee stopped the game less than five minutes in Thursday afternoon, before walking over to Los Alamitos High girls’ lacrosse coach Sofia Aragon.

Some of the Griffins parents on the other side of the field were questioning the calls, too much for the referee’s liking.

“Your parents need to stop right now,” the referee told Aragon.

At the time, host Corona del Mar held a 2-1 lead. The parents calmed down by midway through the second half, when Los Alamitos had run off seven straight goals and taken control of the game.

Los Alamitos spoiled CdM’s season opener, earning an 11-4 nonleague victory.

Junior Ellery Amdor scored two goals for the Sea Kings, who got one goal each from senior Lauren Rowe and junior Joslyn Simaan. CdM coach Aly Simons said Rowe has recently committed to play lacrosse at Chapman University.

Simons said her team is young this season, after losing dynamic players like attacker Jensen Coop, as well as the twin tandem of Katherine and Kennedy Mulvaney, to graduation. Last year’s team won the first outright Pacific Coast League title in program history and advanced to the second round of the U.S. Lacrosse Southern Section South Division playoffs.

“They were such a strong force out there,” Simons said. “I feel like now that they’re gone, there’s an opportunity for people to step up. It’s just who’s it going to be, and what is it going to look like?”

The team captains this season for CdM are senior goalkeeper Ashley Olson, a four-year starter, along with Simaan and seniors Emily Cannon and Emily Faludy. Olson made five saves in Thursday’s game, along with tallying two ground balls.

Los Alamitos (2-3) got four second-half goals from junior Riley Deutsch, as well as three goals each from senior Rachel Drukker and freshman Lauren Friedman. Deutsch didn’t play in the first half Thursday because she missed the team’s games last weekend at the Rose Bowl Jamboree tournament, Aragon said.

“I think she was just feeding off her team’s energy,” Aragon said. “At halftime, she was excited for her teammates, and I think she just used the energy on the field and brought it with her.”

Drukker, Deutsch and Friedman combined to take draws for the Griffins, who controlled seven of eight draws in the first half and 12 of 17 for the game. Hannah Hornung made eight saves for the winners.

“The girls who we have on the draw are our strongest players,” Aragon said. “I think that’s why we come up with a lot of them. Those three definitely stepped up for us. [The win] is good, because it means the girls know they can do it. I think that’s my biggest thing this year, keeping them confident in themselves, keeping them ready to go with positive energy and not second-guessing themselves.”

Los Alamitos held a 5-2 halftime lead and extended it to 8-2 by the time Simaan scored with 12:27 remaining in the game. That ended a scoreless stretch of more than 34 minutes by the Sea Kings.

“I think on defense, there were a couple of situations where we didn’t successfully transition the ball,” Simons said. “And then offensively, we weren’t finishing. We were running the stuff we wanted to run, we just didn’t finish. But we’re very excited as a coaching staff to have all of these girls.”

Sophomore Caroline Brewster had an assist and two ground balls for CdM, which got three ground balls from junior Tessa Montgomery.

The Sea Kings return to action when they host Santa Margarita in another nonleague game on Saturday at 3:15 p.m.

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo