Warriors on wrong end of play-in match for CIF golf tournament

The top eight Division I seeds automatically qualify as teams for the CIF golf tournament, and the teams seeded ninth through 16th have play-in matches to determine which team plays in the CIF tournament.

Fallbrook was seeded 15th among CIF Division I teams and had a May 9 play-in match against 10th-seeded Eastlake at the Eastlake Country Club. The Titans' 222-226 victory advanced Eastlake as a team to the CIF tournament while relegating Fallbrook's tournament participation to individual qualifiers Jake Guy and Sebbi Winfield.

"We just came out on the wrong end by four," said coach Steve Jorde. "Our kids, they were all pretty disappointed."

Six golfers from each school compete in a high school match, and the team score is derived by adding the five lowest scores while discarding the high score. Guy had a score of 38 for the nine-hole round May 9, Winfield shot a 40-stroke round, Keller Hagen needed 46 strokes, Daniel Milton completed the round in 48 drives and putts, Blake Freeman took 53 shots, and Jake McCaffrey had the discarded score of 60.

The match was the first for the Fallbrook team at the Eastlake Country Club, although Jorde doesn't blame the course for the Warriors' high rounds.

"It was cold and a little windy but not bad," said Jorde. "The course was in good shape."

Fallbrook completed the season with an 11-7 overall record in dual meets. The Warriors, who had won the Valley League championships in 2015 and 2016, finished second in the league standings this year with a 6-2 record in circuit dual meets.

Ramona was undefeated, prevailing over the Warriors by a 218-225 score April 4 at Pala Mesa and by a 209-215 margin April 27 at the San Vicente course in Ramona.

"They got us this year," Jorde said. "They outplayed us both times."

Fallbrook joined the Valley League for the 2014-15 seasons. In 2015, the Warriors were 9-1 in league play but won the league championship outright because Ramona also lost a match at Valley Center. That year, the Warriors won a 203-204 match at Pala Mesa and the Bulldogs prevailed in the 205-207 competition at San Vicente. In 2016, Fallbrook had a 10-0 league record and gave the Bulldogs their only two league losses: 207-226 at Pala Mesa and 205-207 at San Vicente.

"We didn't get the better of them this year," Jorde said.

Although the Bulldogs won the 2017 match at San Vicente to stave off a co-championship with Fallbrook and Ramona, Guy shared the low round of 37 strokes with Ramona's Cameron Marshall.

Guy and McCaffrey were the only seniors on this year's Warriors team.