Warriors win boys golf league championship

Only a loss to San Pasqual to open Valley League competition prevented the Fallbrook High School boys golf team from achieving a perfect league record, but the Warriors won the second-round match with San Pasqual as well as all other league matches to give Fallbrook the 2018 Valley League championship.

"We started out 0-1 and we finished 7-1," said Fallbrook coach Steve Jorde. "That was a nice turnaround. We're really young, so it just took a while to get going."

This year the Fallbrook varsity team had two seniors, one junior, and six freshmen.

"We lost a pretty big chunk of the team last year," Jorde said. "We really only had three returning players."

Had it not been for rainfall March 22, Fallbrook would have started league competition that day against Ramona on the San Vicente course in Ramona, but the postponement of that match gave the Warriors an April 5 league opener against San Pasqual on the Pala Mesa course.

Six members of a high school team compete in each match, which during the regular season is a nine-hole round. The high score is discarded while the scores of the other five golfers are added to obtain the team score. San Pasqual won the match by a 238-246 margin. "We had a really bad day," Jorde said.

San Pasqual thus became the first team other than Ramona to defeat the Warriors in a Valley League match. Fallbrook joined the Valley League in 2014, and during the Warriors' first three seasons Fallbrook's only three league losses were to Ramona while the Warriors accounted for three of Ramona's four league defeats.

Escondido traveled to Pala Mesa for an April 10 league match, although the Cougars did not have enough golfers for a team score so Fallbrook won by forfeit.

The April 16 makeup date for the match in Ramona gave the Warriors league competitions on four consecutive days, although the April 19 match against Escondido on the Castle Creek course was a forfeit victory. Fallbrook began the week with a 221-247 win over Ramona at the San Vicente course.

San Pasqual plays its home matches, including the one April 17 against Fallbrook, at The Vineyard. Fallbrook was on the winning end of the 216-236 score. "We had a good day at their place," Jorde said.

Sebbi Winfield, who is one of Fallbrook's two seniors, led the team with a score of 36. The next lowest Fallbrook score was the 40 shot by freshman Quinn Lynnus. Keller Hagen, the junior, had a round of 44 strokes. Scores of 48 were posted by freshman Zach Hidalgo and senior Daniel Milton.

The April 18 match was against Valley Center at the Pauma Valley Country Club course. The Warriors triumphed by a 219-225 margin. "We had a really good day," Jorde said.

Winfield needed 37 strokes to complete his round at Pauma Valley, Lynnus had a score of 41, Hagen took 43 shots, Hidalgo had 44 drives and putts, and Milton placed the ball in nine holes with 54 strokes.

Fallbrook had two league matches during the final week of the regular season. "They knew they couldn't lose again," Jorde said.

Ramona traveled to Pala Mesa for an April 23 match. Fallbrook prevailed by a 232-254 margin. Jorde attributes the Warriors' higher score compared to the first match against Ramona to the Fallbrook course rather than to a decline in performance.

"Pala Mesa is very difficult," Jorde said. "It's just very tight and the greens are very fast."

Another score of 37 made Winfield the medalist against the Bulldogs. Ramona senior Serop Matoian, whose score of 37 made him the medalist in the April 16 match, took 43 shots at Pala Mesa to lead the Bulldogs. Hagen had a 44-stroke round April 23, Hidalgo had a score of 49, Lynnus took 50 shots, and freshman Damon Powell completed his nine holes in 52 strokes.

Fallbrook and Valley Center both took 6-1 league records into their April 24 match at Pala Mesa which closed out league play for the two teams. "It really came down to the last match of the year against Valley Center," Jorde said. "The winner was going to win league."

The 235-239 score was in Fallbrook's favor. "We did what we needed to do to win," Jorde said.

Winfield once again had a 37-shot round. "He's the leading player in our league," Jorde said. "He's been carrying us."

Hidalgo had a score of 45 against Valley Center, Lynnus took 47 shots, Hagen had a 49-stroke round, and Milton had a score of 57.

"They found a way to win," Jorde said.

Valley Center finished second in the league standings with a 6-2 record. San Pasqual had a 5-3 mark for third place. The loss of multiple 2017 seniors whose golf experience preceded their first day of high school left Ramona with a fourth-place record of 2-6.

The league championship was the third in Fallbrook's four years of Valley League competition. Last year Ramona had an 8-0 Valley League record to win the league championship while Fallbrook's 6-2 record reflected two losses to the Bulldogs and gave the Warriors second place. Fallbrook had a 10-0 league record in 2016 and won the league championship while Ramona had an 8-2 record that year, and in 2015 Fallbrook's 9-1 record included a loss to Ramona and a 203-204 victory over the Bulldogs at Pala Mesa while Ramona also lost a match to Valley Center.

"It's a great accomplishment for them to win league," Jorde said. "It was a little bit unexpected because we were so young."