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Sports

No. 1 Foothill Edges Sea Kings in Boys Lacrosse, 12-11

Knights score twice in final minutes to pull out a victory over Corona del Mar, which is led by the Ortlieb brothers as Jack scores three goals and Michael makes 15 saves.

In their regular-season games in each of the past two years, Corona del Mar has defeated Foothill in overtime, only to fall to the Knights in the playoffs. Maybe that’s why none of the Sea Kings seemed too upset after Wednesday’s annual clash with the Knights. Or maybe they were just excited to have four days off for spring break.s

Either way, not much separates two of the top five boys lacrosse teams in Orange County. Top-ranked Foothill scored twice in the final 4:36 to come from behind and outlast the fifth-ranked Sea Kings, 12-11, in a nonleague game at Foothill High.

“I thought we would have another overtime, three years in a row, but we pulled it out at the end,” said Knights senior attacker Erik Adamson, who assisted on the tying goal and scored the game-winner on his fifth goal of the game with 1:43 remaining. “Whenever we play them we know it’s going to be a close game. They probably are one of the top three teams we’ve played this year. Their 10-man ride is killer and their fastbreak is hard to stop. We had to really work hard.”

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There were 10 ties but only three lead changes as Corona del Mar took the lead six times after the game was tied. The largest lead was two goals by the Sea Kings, at 5-3 in the second quarter, and they took the halftime lead, 7-6, on the first of three consecutive goals by sophomore Jack Ortlieb with :01 seconds remaining.

The teams traded goals in the third quarter, but Corona del Mar opened the fourth with a goal by junior Michael Keasey and another by Connor Canale with 4:50 left in the game to take an 11-10 lead. But the Knights rallied to tie the score and take the lead. The Sea Kings had two chances to tie but Foothill goalie Josh Siglio made his fifth save of the game and a last-second attempt off a steal by John Prickett was knocked loose by a Knights defender at the buzzer.

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“The kids played really hard against the best team in the county,” Sea Kings coach G.W. Mix said. “To play against a team like this and only lose by a goal, which could have gone either way, tells us that we are as good as anybody out there.”

Keasey and Jack Ortlieb led Corona del Mar with three goals each, while Hunter Molnar added two goals and Casey Mix had a goal and four assists. Cameron Cole and Josh Peterman had three goals apiece for the Knights.

The loss broke an 11-game winning streak by the Sea Kings (11-2), who had dropped their first game of the season to El Toro. The four-time Pacific Coast League champions have outscored their opponents by nearly a three-to-one margin this season, averaging 13 goals while surrendering only 4.4.

Sea Kings goalie Michael Ortlieb finished with 15 saves as the Knights had 25 shots on goal, compared to 16 for the Sea Kings.

“Corona del Mar has a high lacrosse IQ,” said Foothill coach Jon Fox, whose team improved to 11-2 this season. “It’s good for us to be in a close match. Generally people come to play Foothill tough. That’s a compliment to our program. They [Sea Kings] will do really well in the playoffs.”

After a few days off, the road doesn’t get any easier for the Sea Kings, who face third-ranked St. Margaret’s Tuesday on Davidson Field at Newport Harbor High.

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