Los Alamitos HS Lacrosse Season Opener, Feb 23.

Los Alamitos has established itself as a perennial power in Orange County and Coach Ben Barchey thinks that this year will no different. Although the team has lost some big-time contributors to graduation, the team is still heavy in senior leadership. According to Barchey, the team has been looking solid in the preseason, both in practice and in tournaments. The Griffins went undefeated in the Trabuco Hills preseason tournament. They went 7-3 in the annual Crush Challenge hosted at Foothill High School.

Los Al is led this year by senior midfielder Josh Duchon, who Barchey says is the most unselfish team player he has ever coached. Backing up Duchon are the attack duo of Tyler Miller a junior, and Josh Jenks (committed to play at D2 Rollins), a senior.

The Griffins stingy zone defense, have two players in particular who should be threats. Senior Chris Hawk (Maritime College) is a bruising defenseman who Barchey sees as being the anchor and enforcer down low. Senior, Casey Mais, is more of a double threat both as a defenseman and as a goal scorer. “Mais has one of the best sticks on our team”, said Barchey.

The Griffins have a tough schedule and the Sunset League’including Huntington Beach and Newport Harbor, looks tough this year. ” I like to break our season into three parts”, Barchey said. “The first part we like to see what we need to improve on as a team, the second part is when our league games kick in and wins and losses become the focus, the third part of our season we focus on getting into the playoffs and putting it all together.” The Griffins open their season February 23rd when they host Beckman.