FALL SPORTS UPDATE
CROSS COUNTRY
Laguna Girls Cross Country finished second in the Small School division at the Orange County Championships held on Oct. 14 in Oak Creek Canyon Park/Silverado. Yolo Javier led the team with a 19:09.20 mark on the three-mile course, with Sudney Sydney, Kiara Flores, Anoua Carrie, and Karina Pitz scoring for the Breakers. Corona del Mar won the division and following Laguna were Brea, Mission Viejo, and Irvine rounding out the top five of 13 teams scored.
Laguna Boys were supposed to run, but lingering flu sidelined the squad. The boys will be ready for the league finals to be held on Oct. 29 at Central Park in Huntington Beach. The Sunset Wave League for boys includes Corona del Mar, Huntington Beach and Marina while the girl’s Sunset Wave League includes CdM, Edison and Marina.
CIF: The girls have qualified and will run in the prelims on Nov. 12 regardless of the league meet outcome. Top 16 teams in Division 4 advance to the finals to be held on Nov. 19 at Mt SAC. Only the top seven teams in the final advance to State to be held on Nov. 26. The only way the boys’ team can keep their 22-year consecutive post-season streak alive is to finish first or second in the league meet.
Rankings: Girls XCC is still #10 this week in the SSCIF D-4 polls. For more information visit www.lbxc.org for girls’ cross country, and www.lagunabeachcrosscountry.com for boys.
FOOTBALL (5-3)
Rasmussen Sets State Record – Breakers Rout Grizzlies 48-0
As expected, Laguna overwhelmed Godinez in the opening Pac 4 League contest held on Oct. 14 at Valley High School near the Godinez campus. Breakers scored on all five first quarter possessions and held the hosts to minus 10 yards for the period. Senior running back Bella Rasmussen became the first girl in California to score more than one touchdown in a career with two scores in the game. Rasmussen has been a football fan and player since early childhood and came close a couple of times last season.
In this contest, Laguna scored on the second play of the game with a perfect 75-yard Jackson Kollock to Jackson Rodriguez pass play. The Grizzlies first possession ended on an interception by Aiden Mulkay on the Godinez nine yard line. After two Grizzly penalties Jackson Kollock finished the drive with a simple toss to Ryner Swanson. Godinez was then forced to punt and the next Laguna drive was a five play affair with a big 40-yard pass play to Miles Freeman followed by a 16-yard toss to Jackson Rodriguez setting up another short touchdown play.
Myles Freeman forced a fumble on the next Grizzly try and recovered the ball. Breakers made it 28-0 on a 19-yard toss to Swanson with just under two minutes remaining. Nick Rogers made the final score of the period with a long run after catching a short pass out of the backfield as time expired. That extra point try was moved to the opposite endzone to begin the 2nd quarter to accommodate the officials’ restroom break, which was unusual. The attempt was wide by Jackson Rodriguez and it was 34-0.
It was the Rasmussen show in the second period as Charlie Kelly recovered a Godinez fumble to set up Laguna’s next possession. Breakers scored on a 4-play drive capped with Rasmussen’s run to paydirt.
Her next touchdown was set up by a 53-yard interception return by Dylan Zevnik. Rasmussen almost scored on a 16-yard run but finished the drive with a 1-yard push.
After that, a running clock quickly ended the last five minutes of the period after only two scrimmage plays, and the second half was also a running clock allowing only 28 scrimmage plays in the half.
Up Next: The league title is on the line as Westminster (8-0) faces Laguna Friday night, Oct. 21 at Guyer Field. The rating system used for CIF playoff placement has Laguna ranked #157 and the Lion’s #158. Breakers will be the Lion’s toughest opponent so far this season while Laguna has played four higher rated teams all before Jackson Kollock was eligible to play. The final regular season game is Friday Oct. 28 at Ocean View (1-7). Baring an upset at Ocean View, Laguna should make the playoffs – probably in D9 in a 16-team bracket,with the pairing announced at 10 a.m. on Sunday Oct. 30, at wwwcifss.org.
In the past 87 seasons, Laguna has qualified 20 times with a 20-19 overall playoff record.
Rushing: Kollock 2-(15), Rasmussen 8-21, Dix 5-7, Team 1-4
Passing: Kollock 14-7-0 200 yds 5TDs 287.9 rating, Das 3-3-0 46 yds
Receiving: Swanson 3-25, Rodriguez 2-91, Rogers 1-44, Freeman 1-40, K Das 1-31, Vellmure 1-8, Soloff 1-7
Kick-off Returns: none
Punt Return: Rodriguez Fair catch
Punts: Rodriguez 1-24 (inside 20)
Interceptions: Mulkey 1-3, Zevnik 1-53, Castillo 1-23
Fumble Recovery: Freeman, Donaldson, Kelly
GIRLS GOLF (1-4, 3-8)
Laguna’s regular season ended on Oct. 13 with a loss to Corona del Mar 215-204 at Ben Brown’s in the best team score of the year. Three players shot career-lows at Bens, with senior co-captain Sophia Pachl posting a 38, senior co-captain Mollie Moran posting a 42, and junior Luxy Bynum posting a 45.
BOYS SAND VOLLEYBALL (3-2)
Wednesday Oct. 12 verses Santa Margarita at Main Beach (Won 4-3)
#1’s Logan Ribarich/Jake Mauro lost 18-21/22-20/10-15
#2’s Ryan Laughlin/Laird Garcia lost 18-21/15-21
#3’s Ryan Halloran/Ben Rowan lost. 19-21/21-19/13-15
#4’s Kai Patchell/Lucas McKibben won 21-18/21-17
#5’s Dylan Siriani/Chase Bryan won. 21-8, 21-17
4 Man. Won 28-26. Laughlin, Mauro, Ribarich, Halloran, sub: Rowan
GIRLS TENNIS (0-4, 1-12)
This past Tuesday, Laguna dropped another close match as they lost again to Newport Harbor on the tiebreaker, falling short in game, 77/79. Izzy Lobosco swept her sets 6-3, 62-62 and Kendyl Bereford won two of three, dropping one set 5-7. Overall, there were four close sets that could have gone either way in the match held on the winner’s courts.
Last week, Breakers fell 14-4 to Huntington Beach on Oct. 13 scoring on two double sets and two singles. Team season concludes with an Oct. 20 match at Corona del Mar and Oct. 24 with Huntington Beach on the home courts
GIRLS VOLLEYBALL (16-19, 0-6) – Season completed
Breakers concluded the 2022 season with a 5-set victory over St Margaret’s (26-7) the Orange Coast League champion. 26-24, 27-25, 12-25, 23-25, 15-13 in a match where the entire team played. Laguna was in the OCL from 2006 thru 2017 winning every league match before joining the Sunset Conference.
Against the Tartans, Eva Travis led with 19 kills, Kyra Zaengle added 10 plus 16 digs, Brooklyn Yelland had four kills and 22 digs. Meg Gardner had some amazing service runs recording eight aces. Six players had blocks, eight with kills, and five with service aces.
Season statistics can be found on the Max Preps website.
Boys Water Polo (13-8, 0-4)
Breakers remained ranked #9 in Southern California after dropping a 20-8 league match to Newport Harbor on Oct. 12 at the Los Alamitos High Pool (substituting for a home pool for the Breakers). On Saturday, they avoided a big upset to rally past unranked Aliso Niguel 12-11 at the Aliso pool. Against the Wolverines, Laguna was down 8-4 in the third period but managed to come back on goals by Cade Anderton, Diego Audebert and Charlie Mott to tie the contest early in the final period. Winning score came in the final minute by Eli Taub.
Breakers faced Los Alamitos on Oct. 19 in a “home” match at Newport Harbor then had a non-league contest at Dana Hills on Oct. 21. Next week the regular season concludes at Santa Margarita on Monday, Huntington Beach on Wednesday (@ Los Alamitos) and a true home game on Oct. 28 with San Juan Hills.
THURSTON MIDDLE SCHOOL
The long-awaited formal team sports program for Thurston Middle School is finally underway as the Wave Runners are fielding five teams right now for both 7th Grade and 8th Grade: Girls basketball is coached by Jack Taylor, Boys and Girls indoor volleyball coached by Chanel Stewart, Girls Cross County directed by Steve Lalim and Boys Cross County coached by Tommy Newton-Neal. Boys Basketball, Soccer, and Track will also be offered.
The School is in the Coastal Athletic League with Corona del Mar MS, Costa Mesa MS, Dwyer MS, Ensign MS, Sowers MS, TeWinkle MS, and Harbor Day.
Boys Volleyball – 8 Grade Team:
Manuel Pinera, Dylan Sweet, Hayden Petrie Norris, Kai Fong, Ethan Robbins, Quinn Halloran, Charlie Miller, Trueman Smith, Quinn Riley, Masen McKinzie, Jacob Bystrom, Colten Tonkovich, Heaton Peabody (7th), Lars Knepper (7th), Warren Rootlieb (7th).
7th Grade Team
Dominic Lerum, Declan McCormick, Max Osborne, Luca Guzman, Jack Jameson (6th), Charlie MacGillivray (6th), Charlie Christian (6th), Hunter Blue (6th), Tanner Tafreshi, Shore Barry, Graham Richland, Colter Steris, Cole Steinke(6th) , Ryder Lemanzyk, PJ Kappel (6th).
BVB Scores so Far: 8th Grade lost to Harbor Day 25-19, 25-16, beat Ensign 25-23, 23-25, 15-10.
7th Grade beat Harbor Day 25-17, 25-21, lost to Ensign 25-15, 25-17.
Thurston is also fielding a surf team – detailed report next week.
WINTER SPORTS
Basketball, soccer, girls water polo and wrestling all get underway in mid-November. Girls basketball is the first to open at home and will host Rancho Alamitos on Nov. 15.
Do you have a note on a former Breaker athlete? Please submit to Frank Aronoff at [email protected].
Looking for the 2022-23 schedules and scores?
Football, girls volleyball, and water polo scores and rosters can be found on the Max Preps website.
