Top-Ranked Griffins’ Girls Dominate Second Half to Batter No. 2 Beckman in Lacrosse, 24-15

 A marquee, midseason matchup between two of the best girls lacrosse teams in Orange County looked as if it would be an instant classic after the first half Tuesday. However, in the second half, No. 1 showed No. 2 who still reigns as the boss.

Los Alamitos, the two-time defending Orange County and U.S. Lacrosse Division 1 Southern California champions, scored 10 of the first 11 goals and held Beckman to four goals on 10 shots in the second half for a convincing 24-15 triumph in a nonleague match at Laurel School in Los Alamitos.

After the powerhouses combined to score 22 goals and attempt 41 shots in a deadlocked first half, the Griffins (8-2) scored three goals in the first three minutes of the second half and never looked back. Senior co-captain Allie Conrad led the way with 10 goals, scoring three of the first four and eight total in the second half.

“Our team never quits,” first-year Griffins coach Liz Connelly said. “We played the same way we always do. We go into every game expecting to win. Beckman is a very, very good team. We have a good, friendly rivalry with them.”

The Patriots (9-1) suffered their first loss of the season in their third match back after capturing the Orange County Invitational 10 days ago. They matched the Griffins goal-for-goal in the first 13 minutes, then took the lead with three successive goals within three minutes, two by senior Allie Lehner and one by junior Kylie Wong.

But that lead lasted less than two minutes as Los Alamitos stormed back with three of its own goals by freshman Grace Schmidt-Beck, junior Lauren Actkinson and senior Torrey Bailey. Beckman tied the score, 11-11, with 1:10 left in the half on a goal by Lehner, who finished with seven goals in the half and nine for the match.

“One of our plans was to get a lot of shots on goal,” said Patriots coach Tom Messmer, who saw his team outshoot the Griffins 23-14 in the first 25 minutes.

“But they figured out we were trying to get a lot of shots and did a good job on defense [in the second half].”

Los Alamitos took the lead for good at 23:34 of the second half, and outside of a goal by Wong five minutes later, didn’t allow another score by Beckman until 6:02 remained in the match to lead 21-13. Along with Conrad, contributing to the Griffins’ season-high 24 goals was Bailey with three goals and three assists, senior co-captain Melissa Hastie with two goals, sophomore Julie Cromwell with two goals and freshman Caitlin Derry, also with two goals.

Despite the loss, Messmer wasn’t disappointed with his team’s performance against the top team in the county. The Griffins had been allowing only eight goals a match before Beckman nearly doubled that total.

“I told the girls [after the match] that we’re going to see [Los Alamitos] again in the championship,” he said. “This doesn’t change any of that. We want to play these types of teams to see what we need to work on. We didn’t shoot well outside and we didn’t get many chances from the 8-meter on directs. It came down to passing and scoring on directs. We’ve got six weeks [until the playoffs] to work on those things.”

Beckman will attempt to start a new winning streak today with a Pacific Coast League match against Irvine at Hicks Canyon Elementary. Los Alamitos will travel to Occidental College on Friday to meet Denver East in a nonleague match.