The energy at Saugus High School on Wednesday could be felt right from the start.
Both the Saugus Centurions and the Valencia Vikings were seeking to capture the Foothill League boys’ lacrosse title, and both teams were physical from the opening face-off. But it was the Centurions who ended up winning the title for the fifth consecutive season.
After going down a goal in the first quarter, the Centurions scored 12 unanswered goals en route to a 13-2 victory.
Saugus (12-7, 7-1) junior Kaden Barcus scored four goals to help the Centurions to their first outright league title since 2023. Saugus and Hart shared the title last season.
Barcus finishes the regular season with 38 goals, second on the Centurions behind freshman Gavin Pantelidis, who scored twice on Wednesday to bring his team-leading tally to 51. Sophomore Cody Carter also bagged two goals.
“We came out here knowing we were gonna do better than we were the whole season,” Barcus said. “I mean, the last, like, four to five games we’ve started to pick it up more, and we just knew we were gonna come out and be able to win.”
Valencia (14-3, 5-3) ended up finishing third in the league standings, a game behind the West Ranch Wildcats (7-8, 6-2), who beat the Hart Hawks on Wednesday, 10-3. A Valencia win on Wednesday would have created a three-way at the top of the league standings among the Vikings, Centurions and Wildcats.
Sophomores Landon Lattimore, Jameson Ireland and Cody Carter each added a goal for Saugus, as did juniors Lucas Limon, Maverick Kret and Darren Valentino.
Senior Derek Grossman had both goals for Valencia.
Saugus held much of the possession early on, part of the strategy for the Centurions, according to head coach Josh Ireland. That possession led to a barrage of shots on the Valencia net, many of which were saved by Vikings goalie Timothy Avila.
But once the Centurions tied things up less than two minutes after Valencia took the lead midway through the first quarter, the goals started to flow.
“One of the most unique things about this group of guys — we’re young, but we’ve been playing lacrosse for a long time, and we can change our offensive scheme,” coach Ireland said. “We can make adjustments. And so we made a big adjustment to play from the bottom, or behind the cage, up, and that’s where a lot of those looks were coming from.”
Saugus increased its winning streak to five games with Wednesday’s win. The lone senior on the team, Dustin Klassen, has been missing with a broken finger, and Barcus said the young Centurions simply needed some time to get going.
And get going they have.
“It took a lot more patience throughout the season to be able to finally get to where we wanted, because we know we had the skill for it, but it just took a lot of time to be able to put the pieces together,” Barcus said.
This run of form for the Centurions has Barcus feeling like they can make some noise in the upcoming CIF Southern Section postseason. Brackets are set to be released at 10 a.m. on Friday.
“This is huge going into playoffs,” Barcus said. “It’s more of a statement, kind of like we’re showing everyone who we are and how we can play.”
