They didn’t score the first goal, but West Ranch Wildcats boys’ lacrosse ended up with a dominant victory on Friday in their first playoff game.
Hosting the Millikan Rams at West Ranch High School, the Wildcats responded to an early deficit with a five-goal first quarter on their way to a 13-4 victory to advance to the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 3 playoffs.
Junior Graden Choe scored three goals in the opening frame for West Ranch (8-8) and ended up with four goals overall to go along with three assists.
“We knew their offense was good,” Choe said. “Yeah, they got us real good with the first goal, they got a good shot off on fall. But, you know, we were expecting that, and we really knew how to shut it down, so we didn’t let that happen too many other times.”
After allowing three goals in the first quarter, the Wildcats only allowed Millikan (11-8) one more the rest of the way.
It was the sort of performance that West Ranch head coach Chris Taylor said was possible with the return of a few players from injury, including senior faceoff specialist Evan Brown. The Wildcats had a week off from playing after receiving a bye in the first round as the top seed in the bracket.
“We feel good,” Taylor said. “A couple of guys came back from injuries that kind of had set us back a little bit, if I may. It was big to have Evan Brown back, our face-off guy. We controlled the majority of the faceoffs, and that’s the difference of the game versus other games. Not to say that our other guys didn’t step up big, but we needed that. That’s what helped us control the tempo.”
Freshman Michael Williams added a hat trick for West Ranch while junior Greyson Foster and senior Jonas Cantu had two goals each. Foster also had two assists.
With West Ranch seemingly scoring at will at times on Friday, Choe said it feels like the Wildcats are nearly where they want to be at the right time of the season.
“Obviously, there’s still things that we got to really focus on — getting the ball settled in transition, that’s a big thing for us,” Choe said. “But I think we’re really approaching there. I think this is one of the closest we’ve been to being at the top. So, yeah, it’s really exciting.”
West Ranch finished in third place in the Foothill League standings but is the last team standing in the playoffs.
The Wildcats are slated to host the Linfield Christian Lions (18-3) in the quarterfinals on Wednesday at 5 p.m. The Lions beat Viewpoint in the second round, 18-9.
But Choe isn’t worried about how well the other teams are doing, only that his squad is the team to beat at the top of the bracket.
“I think we’re gonna get it all,” Choe said. “I mean, we’re the one seed, we just got a very dominant win. I think we could take it all.”
