Tight SoCal Single-School Season Ends with Los Al Repeat
Tight SoCal Single-School Season Ends with Los Al Repeat
Since the beginning of the Southern California school season, Los Alamitos was in the conversation.
But, as we saw throughout the December-through-February season, there were a lot of close games at the top, which meant the playoffs were somewhat up in the air. Los Al lost to Torrey Pines on December 15 by the score of 15-12.
After a couple of fairly comfortable wins Los Al lost 24-21 to Loyola of LA. Orange Lutheran for their part, had lost to Torrey Pines 25-24. So everyone knew the top four were competitive, but no one quite knew how it would shake out.
In the end, Los Al got their revenge over Torrey Pines; Orange Lutheran got by Loyola; and in the final, Los Alamitos put it all together to win SoCal’s single-school final 29-10 and earnt he league championship for the second year in a row.
Los Alamitos started off fast with a score within the first 10 minutes and kept running hard. They opted not to kick when in their own half and instead ran at Orange looking to create gaps. It worked.
It was a fast-paced game and with both players playing quickly and there not being many penalties the game went kind of quickly. Los Al defended well and built on their lead. Sophomore Lenny Ibarra scored two tries, while Gavin Vera and Hunter Tago-Su’e also touched down.
“Once Los Al had the lead they did not lose it,” said Head Coach Dylan Ramirez, “with a very impressive defensive stand backing up Orange Lutheran and forcing them to kick on multiple occasions.”
For Orange Lutheran, they did get tries from Keelan Tagoai and Noah Tuiolosega and kept competing, but couldn’t bridge the gap the early Los Al onslaught created
“The team put up a great fight and gained some valuable experience from this match,” said Orange Lutheran Head Coach. “For a second year program, I am very proud of the boys effort this whole season. They have come a long way in a short amount of time and look forward to keep testing ourselves as we move on to the State Championship in NorCal.”
In SoCal’s Multi-School season, which essentially features teams that are mostly or heavily from one school but has other players as well, ended with San Clemente beating Carlsbad 13-7.
Right now the plan is to have the top two teams from the single-school championship play against the top two from the Northern California single-school competition. Currently in Northern California De La Salle and St. Francis are both 4-0. Those two teams play each other this weekend.
