Mustangs Catch Up, Then Can't Catch a Break

Foothill High midfield Cooper Pickell called it a garbage goal, and he would know.

He scored it.

That is how fortunes changed for the Mira Costa High Mustangs on Friday in a 14-12 loss to the Knights in the U.S. Lacrosse CIF Southern Section championships.

After firing everything they had at the three-time defending champions for three-plus quarters, fighting their way back from a four-goal deficit, the Mustangs fell on what was a fluky goal fired point-blank in front of the net. Mira Costa had tied the score at 12 with 1:47 to play in the match when Tom Farrell fired a shot past Foothill goalie Nathan Kleponis. And then ...

''It was a garbage goal, pretty much,'' Pickell said. ''Our guy was driving and the ball got loose, it just popped out, and I ended up being in the right place at the right time, just beat my guy to the ball and finished. But it's definitely one of the best goals I've ever had.''

That was not the end of it. The Mustangs got the ball back inside 25 seconds to play with a long shot chance to push toward a tying goal, but the Knights Eric Adamson smacked the ball away from Tajee Mobley, Cameron Cole picked up the ground ball and drilled it into the net.

At that point all that was left was the count – four, three, two, one, on the clock; one, two, three, four, on the number of consecutive lacrosse titles for the Knights.

''It was just another man-up opportunity. We just gave them too many tonight,'' Mira Costa coach David Vinci said, of the winning goal. ''And you know what, the ball, sometimes it just doesn't bounce your way. We did everything we could on that possession and sometimes you get some fluke things to happen. Quite honestly, they had a lot of weird goals tonight.

''It's disappointing, obviously, but our guys were in the right position and I'm not going to get upset over that kind of play.''

Mira Costa, which had beaten Bay League rival Palos Verdes to advance to the championship match, had pushed its way into position to take down the Knights.

The Mustangs trailed 10-6 with 5:31 remaining in the third quarter, but Dakota Randall scored an unassisted goal, then off an assist from Farrell and then off another assist from Mobley to get Mira Costa within 10-9 going into the fourth quarter.

Foothill scored the first goal in the final 12 minutes, extending its lead back to two at 11-9. But Mira Costa came right back on goals by Spencer Young and Nick de la Espriella, tying the score with 3:57 remaining in the match. The Knights went back ahead with 2:23 to go on a goal by Josh Peterman, but Farrell came back and tied the score just 36 seconds later.

 ''Our guys fought all night,'' Vinci said. ''They were up four goals on us, and we came back and tied it up. You know, we had a couple balls, we just missed a couple of opportunities, but I'm not going to be angry with my guys. They hustled and they played all night to the very end and you know what, we played a great team and we never quit. That's what matters to me right now.''

When they caught up, they just couldn't catch a break. ''We played our hardest, that's pretty much all you can do,'' said Randall, who led the Mustangs along with Mitchell Hymowitz with three goals apiece. ''I thought we were going to pull it off, but … I don't even know. It just didn't work out for us.''