Mustangs Blister Nets for 18 Goals in Season Sweep of Palos Verdes

Mira Costa began their girls lacrosse season with a 6-4 win over Bay League foe Palos Verdes in the Rose Bowl Tournament on March 5.

The Mustangs offense has come a long way since then and after picking up a narrow 14-13 win over the Sea Kings earlier in the Bay League season, Mira Costa coach Amanda Cross prepared her team for another close one in the teams' third tilt of the year.

“I was preparing for this to come down to the last few seconds," said Cross. "The third time you play someone and have beaten them, they want revenge."

Wednesday night, the Mustangs shrugged off a slow start and exploded for 18 goals in an impressive 18-10 win over PV.

To begin the game, the Sea Kings dominated time of possession, controlling the ball for nearly five minutes and preventing the Mustangs from getting into any offensive sets.

Caitlin Lahman and Becca Golding scored to put PV in front 2-0 with 18:56 to play in the first half.

Cross called a quick timeout and rallied her team.

“Something that we have struggled with at times this season is connecting our passes and we really cleaned that up after the slow start,” Cross said.

Carly McGuire set up Lexi Kurugian less than 30 seconds out of the timeout for a goal.

“After that first timeout, we picked up our passing, got our ground balls and picked up our focus,” McGuire said.

As if a switch had been flipped, the Mustangs offense rose from its slumber with a furious attack, scoring seven times in the final 11:39 of the first half, as Taylor Pool scored on a free position shot to begin the scoring.

“We realized we had to rebound from that two-goal lead they got and picked it up from there,” said Pool.

The diminutive Pool set up Lia Sepanek for one of her two goals and McGuire would find the back of the net three times, including a nifty wrap-around goal, after taking the feed from Pool with 3:08 in the half to bring the score to 8-4.

“The last time [vs. PV] we did not play too well," said McGuire. "We weren’t transitioning well, but tonight our transition was great and that helped a lot."

The Mustangs built on their momentum from the first half and crisply ran offensive sets and continued scoring off of excellent ball movement.

“We had really good ball movement and figured out that the ball moves faster than we do, and let our passing do the work,” Kurugian said.

Pool scored three times in the second half to give her a team-high 5 goals, with McGuire scoring three times and Kurugian and Sepanek adding two goals apiece.

“We moved the ball quicker and passed well," said Pool. "I think we were able to confuse them a little."

Siena Oberman would score two of her team-best four goals in the final 1:16 for Palos Verdes to bring the final tally to 18-10.

“This is the best defense we have played so far," said Cross. "The girls did a good job sliding and communicating and I was very impressed with the way we played.” 

If the Mustangs can defeat Peninsula on April 29, they will capture second place in the Bay League behind Redondo Union.

“I feel good going into the playoffs," said McGuire. "If we keep this up, second and being at the top of the league with Redondo is a great achievement."