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Lacrosse team just misses CIF title

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Ramona High School’s girls lacrosse team came as close as possible to winning the CIF Division II championship without doing so.

The Bulldogs took Pacific Ridge into overtime before falling to the Firebirds in the 8-7 championship game May 16 at San Dieguito Academy.

“We had a great season,” said assistant coach Al Cavell.

The Bulldogs also won their first-ever league championship, concluding Valley League play with a 9-1 circuit record. Although Ramona’s Valley League and regular-season competition concluded with a May 5 victory at El Camino, the Bulldogs traveled to Patrick Henry for a May 4 non-league game and won that 16-6 contest.

“That was definitely good,” Cavell said. “Patrick Henry’s a really good team. We did not expect to have quite the domination we did in that game. We’ll take it, but we definitely weren’t expecting it.”

Ashley Wright scored eight goals against the Patriots, Emily Kramer placed the ball into the net four times, Danielle Vizcarra had three successful shots, and Sierra Fields scored once.

Ramona’s only Valley League loss was a 16-10 home defeat April 7 against Valley Center, but the Bulldogs defeated the Jaguars by a 13-11 triumph April 24 at Valley Center.

El Camino and Valley Center split their two league matches, so a Ramona win over El Camino would give the Bulldogs the league championship while a Wildcats win would make the Bulldogs and Jaguars co-champions.

Ramona was on the winning end of the 10-7 final score.

“That was a really good game,” said Cavell. “El Camino definitely gave us a run for our money, but the girls really wanted to be league champions so they pulled it off.”

Rachel Costan led the Bulldogs with four goals while Wright scored three times.

“Ashley was double or triple teamed the whole game,” Cavell said.

Alyxis Trampus, Kramer and Analise Hardin each had one goal against the Wildcats.

“It was an exciting game for the girls,” Cavell said. “Now we won’t have an empty banner in the gym.”

The Bulldogs received the second seed in the Division II playoffs, giving them a first-round bye and a home playoff game May 12. Seventh-seeded Granite Hills won its first-round match to earn the right to travel to Ramona for the quarterfinal.

“They definitely are a really good team,” Cavell said of the Eagles. “I’m not surprised at all that it was a tough game.”

The game was tied at five goals apiece before a Ramona score in the final four minutes of regulation gave the Bulldogs a 6-5 victory.

“Very close, which we fully expected,” Cavell said. “That went back and forth to the end.”

Wright scored three times against Granite Hills with Kramer, Vizcarra and Hardin contributing a goal apiece.

Ramona goalkeeper Gina Gruneisen made three saves against the Eagles.

“Our defense pretty much made that game possible,” Cavell said. “Megan Vandervort ended up causing quite a few turnovers at the end that really saved the game.”

The win, along with a pair of Grossmont High School upset victories, pitted the 11th-seeded Foothillers against Ramona in the May 14 semifinal at Ramona.

“We figured they were on a roll, they were going to be tough, but we did beat them 8 to 3,” Cavell said.

Although rain did not fall during the game, an accident earlier in the day closed Wildcat Canyon Road and forced the game’s referees to turn around and access Ramona High School by a different route. The game began approximately 20 minutes after its scheduled 6 p.m. start.

“We got a little bit of a damper while we were warming up, but the rain held off during the game itself,” Cavell said.

Ramona’s synthetic turf field includes a drainage system to handle rainfall.

“That definitely helped,” Cavell said. “The field was fine.”

Wright scored five of Ramona’s goals with Kramer providing the other three. Nina Thorson was Ramona’s goalie against the Highlanders and made eight saves.

Pacific Ridge had the fourth seed but upset top-seeded Otay Ranch in the semifinals before defeating the second-seeded Bulldogs in the championship match.

“It was definitely an intense game,” Cavell said. “The girls fought to the end.”

Wright had injured her knee against Grossmont and played the first half of the championship game, but late in that half she fell and was unable to run at full speed.

“The other girls stepped right up and did what they had to do,” Cavell said.

Wright was still able to score three goals with Costan contributing two scores and Kramer and Maddy Peila each placing one shot into the net. Ramona took a total of 24 shots on goal.

“Pacific Ridge’s goalie was amazing,” Cavell said. “She won that game for their team.”

Thorson made 10 saves for Ramona.

“She did great,” Cavell said.

The 7-7 tie at the end of regulation triggered two mandatory three-minute overtime periods. The Firebirds scored the winning goal in the first overtime. Ramona obtained the ball with 30 seconds remaining in the second overtime for one final attempt.

“Thirty seconds is not very much time, so we couldn’t get the shot off at the end,” Cavell said.

The loss finalized Ramona’s overall season record at 18-5, which doubled the team record for wins in a season set last year when the Bulldogs were 9-13 including a CIF playoff victory and a CIF quarterfinal loss.

The CIF championship game defeat also ended Ramona’s 13-game winning streak. Before this season the Bulldogs had never accrued more than three consecutive wins.

The trip to the CIF finals was also the first for Ramona.

“We’re super proud of them,” Cavell said of her players. “They had a great season.”

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