Survive and advance. It’s one of the most timeless adages in sports, because it often rings true from the youth to the pro game. For the Los Gatos High boys and girls lacrosse teams, one was able to survive and advance and the other saw its season come to an end.
The girls team posted a 13-12 win over Scotts Valley in double overtime in a Central Coast Section playoff quarterfinal on May 14. The No. 3 seed Wildcats (17-0) advance to a semifinal matchup at No. 2 seed Sacred Heart Prep (14-3) on May 18 at 5:30pm.
Prior to the girls game, the No. 4 seed Los Gatos boys team (16-5) fell to Santa Clara Valley League rival and No. 5 seed Menlo-Atherton, 11-8. After two months of blowing out opponents, the girls team has been involved in a pair of nail-biters.
The Wildcats’ double OT playoff victory came after a 13-12 win over Stevenson in the regular-season finale. Against an upstart Scotts Valley team that only started fielding a girls lacrosse program in 2020, Los Gatos had all it could handle.
Lucy Holland’s goal with 1 minute, 39 seconds left in the second OT period ignited the team’s biggest celebration of the season. Keira Dodd had the assist, delivering a perfect pass to Holland who was streaking to the front of the Scotts Valley goal.
“I’m very happy we got to end this game on a high note,” Wildcats coach Tes Hayton said. “I bet Lucy is jumping around over there somewhere.”
Both teams had chances to end the match in the first OT period, with Scotts Valley putting the pressure on early in the first extra 3-minute sudden victory session. After a couple of Falcons’ chances, Holland had an opportunity to end it in the final minute of the first OT period, but her shot from in close was turned away by Falcons goalie Olivia Tinetti.
Holland made sure her second opportunity to close things out was true. She was part of a balanced scoring attack that saw Dodd finishing with two goals, Tessa Dennon with one, Alex Evans scoring a pair of goals, Natasha Evenden with three and Jackie Enns found the net four times.
“Just tough and a nail-biter the whole time,” Holland said. “It was awesome to score that goal, but I have to give credit to all my teammates. It’s such an awesome team and it was a great game. It was my last game at Helm Field so it was quite a way to end it.”
Enns was clutch, scoring at critical moments. Scotts Valley had taken a 6-3 lead—the largest of the game—with 8:43 left in the first half when Enns fought hard to win a ground ball and scored after Tinetti made two saves from close-range shots.
Enns tallied again to cut the Wildcats’ deficit to 6-5, scoring from point-blank range after taking a pass from Dodd who was behind the goal. The Falcons scored to take a 7-5 lead into halftime, but Los Gatos, knowing it had to elevate its play, scored five of the next six goals to take a 10-8 lead with 19:34 left in the game.
Just when it looked like Los Gatos had taken control, Scotts Valley delivered an emphatic response, scoring the next four goals to take a 12-10 lead with 7:55 to go. A minute and half later, Enns made a 20-yard run and scored from close range.
Neither team scored in the next couple of minutes, and the Wildcats, desperately needing the equalizer, got it when Evenden bullied her way into the 8-meter arc and scored with 1:18 left in regulation. It was another supreme effort from Evenden, who has made those types of plays all season.
The score set up Holland’s heroics in overtime. Hayton said the Falcons’ speed gave Los Gatos problems. Outside of some spectacular saves from Tinetti and Wildcats goalie Maddie Holloway, neither team could stop each other.
“Possession is everything,” Hayton said. “When you have two teams that are so evenly matched, possession is everything.”
The Los Gatos boys battled M-A to roughly a 50/50 split in possession time. However, the Wildcats didn’t have one of their better passing games and the Bears were superior in capitalizing on their chances. Los Gatos beat M-A in two prior league contests, including an 8-7, double OT win on April 21.
“It really comes down to their preparation,” Wildcats coach Chris Nespor said, referring to M-A getting a third crack at Los Gatos. “They know what we try to do offensively and they had a good plan to shut that down. So we were kind of trying different things and maybe that messed with our rhythm a little on offense.”
Connor Black had a team-high three goals, while Chase Hooper, Carson Bohn, Rafe Smith, Colt Cali and Michael Hoffman had one score each. Los Gatos trailed the entire way, though back-to-back goals from Cali and Black early in the fourth quarter made it 7-7 with 10:03 left.
But M-A closed the game by scoring four of the final five goals to win going away. One of the key stretches of the match came when the Wildcats dominated possession for the first four minutes to open the third period only to get nothing out of it.
The Bears scored on a counter to make it 6-4, a sudden turn of events after it looked like the Wildcats were looking to make it 5-5. Jack Bond made a nice defensive play early in the second, preventing M-A from putting a shot on goal. Goalie Charlie Scott Bibaud made some terrific saves and is one of the standouts on a heavy senior-laden team that Nespor will miss dearly.
“We had a big senior class and these guys have been fighting for us for four years,” he said. “Many of them were freshmen on the varsity their first year. The wins and losses come and go, but what these guys will look back on is the good things and they’ve had a lot of good things happen over their four years.”
Sports editor Emanuel Lee can be reached at el**@we*****.com
