Not one, not two, but three overtimes were needed on Tuesday for the Valencia Vikings boys’ lacrosse team to advance to the second round of the playoffs.
Traveling to Chatsworth to take on the Sierra Canyon Trailblazers in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 2 playoffs, Vikings junior Gabriel De Mesa scored with eight seconds left in the third overtime to win an 8-7 thriller.
“Honestly, I don’t even have the words right now,” said Valencia (15-3) head coach Julian Lewis in a phone interview. “That was the most stressful game of my life. And, yeah, like, kids were completely tired. Guys were on the verge of throwing up. It was absolutely a hard-fought win. And those boys (at Sierra Canyon) deserve a bunch of credit, too, because their team was great, too.”
Lewis said Tuesday’s game went back and forth, with the biggest Valencia lead being two goals with about five minutes left in the fourth period.
And then came what Lewis called “the hardest-fought games of lacrosse we could possibly play” in the overtime periods.
“They took opportunities, we took opportunities,” Lewis said. “They had quick ones that they went for, we had quick ones that we went for. We tried to slow it down, they tried to slow it down. And it was just hard-fought both ways. We just had a quick one at the end, and our shot just fell, and theirs didn’t, and that’s just how it goes in playoffs.”
Valencia is now set to host the Palos Verdes Sea Kings in the second round on Friday at 5 p.m.
In the other boys’ lacrosse playoff game featuring a Santa Clarita Valley squad, the Saugus Centurions lost to the Crespi Celts, 12-9.
Saugus head coach Josh Ireland said his team fought to make it 9-9 before the Celts pulled ahead with a couple of fourth-quarter penalties.
