Warriors reach second round of boys lacrosse playoffs

Fallbrook High School's boys lacrosse team not only reached the CIF playoffs for the first time since 2015 but also advanced to the second round of this year's post-season.

"It's definitely something we're proud of," said Fallbrook coach Brian Kimmell. "We definitely had a successful season."

The Warriors opened their post-season May 9 with a 17-4 victory over San Dieguito Academy. Canyon Crest ended Fallbrook's 2018 competition with a 10-3 victory May 12 on the Ravens' field.

"I was really proud of our effort," Kimmell said.

The Warriors finished the regular season with a 13-5 record, including a 2-3 mark in Valley League play. The league record placed Fallbrook fourth among the league's six teams.

"We'll take it," Kimmell said of fourth place. "We've got two of the Division I teams in our league."

One of those is Valley Center, whose April 16 home game against Fallbrook was a 12-10 Jaguars victory. A Fallbrook goal with a minute remaining created a 10-10 score before Valley Center scored twice.

"That may have been one of our best games of the year," Kimmell said.

San Marcos is the other Valley League team which is in Division I for playoff purposes; the Knights won a 17-2 match April 25 at Fallbrook. The Warriors' only league loss to a Division II team was a 9-7 home defeat April 23 against El Camino.

"We were really close," Kimmell said.

Last year's league match between the Warriors and Wildcats was a 14-7 El Camino win.

"We performed against them much better than we had in the past," Kimmell said.

El Camino and Fallbrook had a non-league game April 4 at El Camino which ended as a 9-4 Wildcats victory. The non-league 2017 game had a 17-4 final score in El Camino's favor. The Wildcats won 9-3 and 8-2 games in 2016. The four Valley League teams in 2015 had two league games against each other; Fallbrook captured 5-2 and 7-6 triumphs against the Wildcats.

Valley Center prevailed by a 19-1 score in the Jaguars' 2017 game against Fallbrook and won by a 19-3 margin in 2016. The Jaguars accounted for Fallbrook's only two league losses in 2015, winning 20-8 and 12-5 matches.

Last year the Warriors had an 8-8 overall season record and were seeded 13th among Division II teams. The 12 top seeded Division II teams compete in the CIF playoffs, so the Warriors missed the 2017 post-season by one seed. "That was a good reminder this year," Kimmell said.

This year the Warriors were given the seventh seed among Division II teams.

"Making the playoffs was our goal," Kimmell said. "We were able to accomplish it."

The 2015 season, in which Fallbrook reached the CIF Division II championship game, constituted the only other invitation to the playoffs in the program's history.

Other than the three league losses and the non-league loss to El Camino, Fallbrook's only regular-season defeat of 2018 was against San Diego Academy, who won a 10-9 game March 13 in Encinitas. In the playoff match Fallbrook took a 9-4 halftime lead against the Mustangs. "We held them scoreless the second half," Kimmell said.

Kimmell called up some of his junior varsity players for the post-season, and the large lead allowed them to obtain varsity experience. "That was nice to be able to get them in there," Kimmell said.

The Warriors had 25 players on their playoff roster including the junior varsity call-ups, and also including junior Hunter Stites, who was injured and was not on the field during the post-season.

"It was really nice for the boys," Kimmell said of the win over San Dieguito. "Getting that kind of performance in the playoffs made the loss to Canyon Crest a little easier."

Canyon Crest was seeded second in the Division II playoffs. "It was a close game earlier on," Kimmell said.

During the early part of the game the Warriors also had senior Michael Ponce, who was injured in the second quarter and missed the remainder of the game.

The Ravens were too skilled for the Warriors to get away with the mistakes Fallbrook made. "They capitalized on those mistakes. We made a couple too many," Kimmell said.