Glendale girls’ lacrosse passes first playoff test
GLENDALE — It took a while for the Glendale High girls’ lacrosse team to get on track during its first-round match of the U.S. Lacrosse L.A. Division playoffs.
Then Xcaret Salvador led an impressive surge.
Fifth-seeded Glendale got seven goals from Salvador and five from Rachel Fong to register a 13-10 win against 12th-seeded Marlborough on Tuesday at Moyse Field.
Glendale (16-3) will meet fourth-seeded Cate, which defeated Mira Costa, 14-7, on Thursday at a time and location to be determined.
Salvador took charge for the Nitros, who won the Pacific League championship for the first time since 2014. The junior attacker scored two goals during a 7-0 run by Glendale in the last 15 minutes of the first half to help the Nitros overcome a 3-1 deficit and build an 8-3 halftime lead.
“I think maybe we were a little tired in the beginning,” Salvador said. “Then we were able to put in a good effort to pull away late in the first half.
“We were down and we really needed to find a way to step it up. We were able to kick it into another gear. It was a good test.”
Glendale got one goal from Erika Lopez and six saves from goalkeeper Lili Barker to advance to the second round.
Marlborough (12-7) took a 3-1 lead on a goal by Caroline Flintoft with 16:09 remaining in the first half. Fong and Lopez scored about two minutes apart to knot it at 3 midway through the half. Fong scored two goals in a row, her second giving the Nitros a 5-3 lead with 8:28 to go. Salvador closed out the first-half scoring with three seconds left.
“We fell behind early on and then we started to get on a roll,” Glendale coach Joe Campbell said. “I’m surprised Marlborough scored 10 goals, but I thought if we could get 12 goals that we would win.
“We got those seven straight goals and I think that took the wind out of Marlborough’s sails. Xcaret and Rachel are similar players and they understand what they need to do in order to be successful.”
Marlborough, which finished second in the Mission League behind Chaminade, closed to within 9-7 with 16:22 to go in the second half. Salvador scored two goals 24 seconds apart to give the Nitros an 11-7 lead near the midway juncture of the second half.
Salvador made it 13-8 with 8:21 to go before the Mustangs tallied the last two goals to cap the scoring.
“I thought we did a good job and stayed with it,” said Campbell, whose team went 4-0 in league. “For a lot of our players, they were taking part in just their second game since we lost in the first round last year.
“We’ll get another good test in our next game and we’ll see what we can do.”
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
