Egad, one hasn’t seen this occur in the past two years.
Midway through the first quarter of the Saturday, May 18, CIF San Diego Section Open Division lacrosse championship, mighty Torrey Pines was being shut out and trailed Coronado by three goals at Scripps Ranch High School.
Collectively, the top-seeded Falcons took a deep breath, regrouped and hit the gas pedal. Less than one minute into the second quarter, the Falcons took the lead and never lost it, beating No. 2 Coronado, 12-9, to win its second consecutive Open Division title and a record seventh overall.
“We went down 3-0, and I think the energy went down at first,” said Laurel Gonzalez, the 2023 Player of the Year who is headed to Johns Hopkins. “But everyone pulled together, and it was strong from there.”
Sydney Stewart (USC) scored five goals for the Falcons (17-4) and finished with a team-high 71 goals. Gonzalez (58 goals) and Alina Hsu (49) each scored twice.
“It feels amazing,” Stewart said. “We’ve been working for this all season. I never doubted my team. Even when we were down, we kept our composure and got it done.”
Torrey Pines coach Kaitlin Doucette, 38, a former NCAA champion at Virginia, won her seventh section title as a coach. As a player at Coronado, Islanders coach Caroline Carlson, 28, won championships in 2011 and 2012. The two coaches are good friends, coach together at Coast Lacrosse, and Doucette used to be Carlson’s coach at West Coast Starz.
“This team is like a whole new level,” Doucette said. “This is the best team I’ve ever coached.”
Coronado sisters Sydney Dunn (sophomore) and Breck Dunn (freshman) scored four goals apiece and tied for the team season scoring title with 66 goals each.
“I’m not surprised,” Carlson said. “They played phenomenal tonight.”
With Sydney opening the scoring and Breck getting the next two, the Islanders (16-4) raced to a 3-0 lead. Torrey Pines stormed back with five consecutive goals to take a 5-3 lead midway through the second quarter. Stewart scored twice. Audrey Davidson, Reese Rohrback and Hsu had the other goals.
Sydney Dunn then tallied twice to tie it 5-5, but Gonzalez (Johns Hopkins) scored just before halftime to make it 6-5.
Gonzalez and Stewart scored again to give the Falcons an 8-5 lead. Another goal each for the Dunn sisters, plus tallies by Hsu and Tatum Bryant made it 10-7 after three quarters.
In the fourth, Stewart scored her fourth goal to give Torrey its biggest lead, 11-7. The Islanders countered with goals by Breck Dunn and Lilah Cade to make it 11-9 with 7:09 to play. Stewart got the last goal with 0:12 left.
Gonzalez finished her amazing career with more than 200 goals and 100 assists. Torrey goalie Camille Samarasinghe faced 27 shots by the Islanders, who also had a 20-4 draw control advantage.
Coronado lost only two games this season to a San Diego County team – Torrey Pines twice. The Falcons were undefeated against county teams.
“It was rough at the end, especially for how hard we worked,” Sydney Dunn said. “But we gave it our all.”
