Mira Costa falls short vs. Marlborough in D3 final
DOWNEY » The CIF Southern Section Division 3 girls lacrosse final faced good friends and coaches Maddy Morrissey and Meghan Toomey against each other.
In the regular season, Morrissey and Mira Costa edged Marlborough 10-8.
Saturday, Toomey and Marlborough, turned the tables, rallying from a twogoal deficit to prevail 10-8 at Downey High.
“We both moved out here around seven years ago, she was the first best friend that I made in L.A.,” Toomey said. “So to see us competing at this level together is everything I could ever dreamed of.
“It's hard to go against your best friend, because even at the end, you're so happy that you won, but you want her to win. We've always wanted each other to succeed.”
Mira Costa (19-6) led 5-3 at halftime.
To start the second half, Marlborough's Caroline Hellie and Jules Sciarrino followed with early goals to tie the game at 5-5.
From there the game settled into a back-and-forth flow. Mira Costa took a 7-5 lead with 15:53 remaining. With less than 10 minutes left, Marlborough had tied the game at 7-7.
“It came down to the last 10 minutes of both games,” Toomey said. “Last game we were actually up the whole time and in the last 10 minutes they tied it and went up by 2-3 goals.”
Unfortunately for Morrissey,
the script was reversed Saturday.
Marlborough took the lead, 8-7, with 8:08 remaining as Julia Guidry scored a third consecutive goal. Marlborough led 9-7 when Sophia Dellino scored for Mira Costa with 4:44 left.
“We're a really young team and sometimes that can be hard when the moment is so big,” Morrissey said. “I'm so proud of the Marlborough girls too. It was a hard-fought battle and that's what championship games are supposed to be like.
“Next year, we will have a little bit more experience and hopefully we will come out on top.”
Mira Costa finished third in the Bay League, behind traditional Division 1 contenders Palos Verdes and Redondo.
The Mustangs received the top seed in the Division 3 bracket and defeated Valencia (16-5), ML King (11-6), Woodbridge (10-3) and Culver City (13-4) to advance to the final.
“We've got a lot of talent coming up and they're learning and they're growing together as a team,” Morrissey said. “We have an amazing team culture, a lot of great traditions were built this season and I think we're going to keep building off of that.”
Morrissey just completed her third year with Mira Costa, the first two as an assistant.
“This year, we were together a lot and spent a lot of time outside of practice working on lax IQ, fitness, strength and conditioning, our track and field coach Mo (Moe Russel) he was working with the girls, we did two-a-days over spring break, we're a real gritty team and I think everyone genuinely cares about each other so I think that is what important and easy to keep our momentum going.
“We're in a really tough league (Bay) and I would like to see us get second or first in the Bay League next year. I think we're ready for that.”