| Senior middie Nolan Semel scored the go-ahead goal with 1:23 remaining to lead Palos Verdes to an 8-7 victory over Oak Park in the CIF-Southern Section North Division championship game Wednesday night at Mira Costa High School.
Semel's goal gave way to a frantic final minute, in which Oak Park failed to score on a man-up opportunity in the waning moments. After Semel scored, Palos Verdes won the ensuing face-off and attempted to run out the clock, but the Sea Kings turned the ball over as a result of some furious Oak Park defending.
Oak Park cleared the defensive half with about 30 seconds remaining, and with 25 seconds to play Palos Verdes committed a slash. However, Oak Park could not get a shot off with time running out, giving Palos Verdes its second straight Los Angeles/Ventura County title.
"The kids were tired," Oak Park Coach Chris White said. "We couldn't get it in the right position. We just didn't execute what we needed to, and we ran out of time."
With the win, Palos Verdes advanced to Friday night's CIF-Southern Section championship game and will face No. 6 Foothill-Orange County in a rematch of last year's title game. Last year, Foothill came from behind to edge Palos Verdes in a one-goal thriller. The championship game will be played at 7 p.m., PDT, at Trabuco Hills High School.
"We're excited to be there," Palos Verdes Coach Lane Jaffe said. "I have nothing but respect for (Foothill). They're stacked all over the field, but we just have to better on one day."
On Wednesday, senior attackman Alex Richardson scored four goals, Semel had four points on two goals and two assists and sophomore goalie Matt Schladen saved 12 shots for Palos Verdes (16-2), which won its 13th straight game. Palos Verdes senior attackmen Sammy Romer and Andrew Pandora each scored single goals.
In a losing effort, senior middie Brett Zeolla scored four goals, junior middie Grayson Phillips scored twice and senior attackman Max Ball added a single goal for Oak Park, which finished the season 11-4. Defensively, freshman goalie Andrew Cohen saved 15 shots for Oak Park, which lost to Palos Verdes by a goal for the second time this season.
Oak Park led 3-2 at the end of the first quarter and 5-4 at halftime before Palos Verdes came back to tie the game, 7-7, by the end of the third quarter.
The teams then played more than 10 minutes of scoreless lacrosse in the fourth before Semel threw home what stood up to be the game-winner.
"I think it was a gut-check for us," Jaffe said. "We worked hard but not smart. We weren't clean. We didn't shoot very well. Zeolla was a warrior."
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2009