Top-Ranked Griffins Fall to Foothill in Girls Lacrosse

The top-ranked Los Alamitos girls lacrosse team, which had won 46 consecutive games before a loss last Saturday in the O.C. Championships, has now dropped two of its last four games, falling 12-10 to third-ranked Foothill in a nonleague match Friday afternoon at Laurel High School.

After falling behind, 5-0, the Griffins cut their deficit to 12-10 with 25 seconds left on a shot by senior attacker Allie Conrad, who took a pass from the top of the eight-meter circle and fired a shot into the net.

Los Alamitos (8-2) got the ball back quickly on the draw and actually had a chance to cut the lead to one goal with 15 seconds left, but Foothill goalie Emily Kift made a save on a point-blank shot.

Kift had also come up big in the first half when Foothill's defense held Los Alamitos  scoreless for the first 15 minutes of the game. Conrad led the Griffins with a game-high four goals, while sophomore attacker Julie Crowell and senior midfielder Melissa Hastie each had two.

“We got some shots off, but their goalie came up with some really great saves, she did awesome,” Los Alamitos coach Liz Connelly said.

Behind 5-0 in the first half, the Griffins finally got on the board with a shot by Hastie after she took a pass on the right flank and moved in for a shot from the angle. After Foothill (6-2) responded with another goal to make the score 6-1, the Griffins got a goal from senior attacker Torrey Bailey, who beat the defense up the middle and then broke to the right side to get the open shot.

But the Knights would respond again, this time with a goal by Lyndsey Alex with only 12 seconds left in the half to push the lead to 7-2 at the break. The Knights were led by Laura Gustafson with three goals. 

The Knights pushed their lead to 10-2 only two minutes into the second half before the Griffins began to chip away at the score. At the 16:35 mark, Hastie scored on a running shot across the goal area that cut the deficit to 10-4. Just over a minute later, the Griffins made it 10-5 with a sharp-angle shot by Conrad.

At the 12:26 mark, Crowell scored off an assist from Hastie, who drove up the middle of the defense and passed the ball back to Crowell near the top of the eight-meter circle for the shot, cutting the deficit to 10-6. After an exchange of goals, junior defender Sophia Aragon picked up a loose ball in the goal area and fired a shot while running to her right that found the net and pulled the Griffins to within 11-8 with 1:59 left.

“We just kept shooting, we never stopped, we never slowed down," Connelly said. "Regardless of the score, we were pushing as hard as we could the entire game."

At about the 1:35 mark, the Griffins were again in scoring position, but Foothill’s Claire Healy made a steal and the Knights would counter with a goal that essentially put the game out of reach.