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Sports

Third-Ranked El Toro Falls to Top-Ranked Foothill, 11-5, in Boys Lacrosse

Knights secured their No. 1 seeding in the playoffs by using a 5-0 run in the second quarter to get past Chargers, who are hoping to hang onto their No. 3 seeding.

With one game remaining in the regular season and El Toro precariously perched as the third-ranked team in Orange County, Chargers coach Adam Guy told his team a respectable performance against the top-ranked Foothill Knights would be a “win,” whether they won or lost.

Orange County lacrosse playoff seeding officials should see that, too.

“We absolutely are a Top 4 team,” said Guy, shortly after the Knights won the oldest rivalry in Orange County boys lacrosse over the Chargers, 11-5, Thursday night at Laguna Hills High. It was a game that actually was much closer than the final score showed. “Foothill is a great team, but our effort level was right there. Just a couple little shots here and there, they capitalized on them and we didn’t.”

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Both teams began slowly until El Toro scored first on a goal by Chris Snarr at 5:26 of the first quarter. Foothill then went on a 5-0 scoring run over the next nine minutes, including two goals by Erik Adamson. The Knights used 6-foot-4 midfielder Cooper Pickett behind the Chargers net to find an open attacker cutting from the top to score. The Knights scored four goals in the second quarter on the same play to take a 6-2 halftime lead.

“They’ve very strong defensively and tough up top, so we had our guys come down in the middle and get free for a shot,” Knights coach Jon Fox said. “I thought we played really well. This game felt like the start of the playoffs for us.”

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Foothill (13-4) won one of three games in its four-game trip to Long Island over spring break last week, and on Saturday will travel to San Diego County to face Rancho Bernardo. The 2011 U.S. Lacrosse Southern Section Championships begin next week.

Most people believe Foothill will easily be awarded the No. 1 seed in the playoffs and secure a first-round bye, as will the teams seeded Nos. 2-4.

“Foothill is a fantastic team,” said the Chargers’ Guy. “They are No. 1 in Orange County for a reason and will be until somebody knocks them off. They had a good game plan coming in against us and it was hard to defend.”

Cameron Cole scored three goals and Adamson and Josh Peterman scored one to extend the Knights lead to 10-3 with 10:33 remaining, but the Chargers scored two of the final three goals, one each by Jake Craycraft and Chris Snarr.

Foothill outshot El Toro, 27-20, and committed five fewer turnovers. Knights goalie Josh Giglio finished with five saves and Chris Laurino came up with eight grabs for the Chargers.

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