Orange County boys lacrosse teams have won the last two CIF-SS championships in Division 1.
Foothill endured the tough side of the bracket last season and beat St. Margaret’s, Mater Dei and Corona del Mar to reach the championship game where the Knights beat Loyola 9-8.
Corona del Mar won in 2022 and this season another O.C. team is the favorite to take home the Division 1 trophy this year.
This could be the year that St. Margaret’s wins its first CIF-SS championship in a much more balanced bracket than last season.
The playoff committee decided on a 12-team Division 1 playoffs this season instead of the traditional 16. That means that they believe there is a larger gap between the top 12 teams and the field this season.
Instead of the traditional 16-team bracket, they decided to pack Division 2 with 23 teams. By doing that, there are seven wild-card round games.
I disagree with the premise that there is a large gap between the bottom Division 1 teams and the top Division 2 teams. San Clemente, the No. 2 seed in the Division 2 bracket, lost to Aliso Niguel, which is in Division 1, by only one goal on March 6. Trabuco Hills, which is in the middle of the Division 2 bracket, beat Aliso Niguel on March 8.
It’s a tough decision for the committee with so many teams beating each other this season. They also likely wanted a league champion like Mira Costa to be the top seed in Division 2, and if they went with a traditional 16-team bracket in Division 1 it would have been impossible to find a league champion worthy of the No. 1 seed.
“I think it’s fair. They got the top four teams right and rewarded them with byes,” a Division 1 coach said. “Light years better than what they put forth last year.”
The top four teams in Division 1 — St. Margaret’s, Loyola, Mater Dei and Foothill — were awarded byes in the first round. The two county matchups in round one are Los Alamitos vs. Santa Margarita and Aliso Niguel vs. JSerra. The Trinity League teams are heavy favorites in both those games.
Beckman, the co-champion in the Pacific Coast League, will host Trabuco Hills, the co-champion in the South Coast League, in round one of Division 2. In the wild-card round, there are two interesting county matchups: Huntington Beach vs. Yorba Linda and Crean Lutheran vs. San Juan Hills.
Orange Lutheran, an at-large from the Trinity League, will play Northwood in round one of Division 3. University, which won its first Pacific Coast League championship, has a bye in round one.
CIF-SS BOYS LACROSSE PLAYOFFS
DIVISION 1
First round byes: St. Margaret’s, Loyola, Mater Dei, Foothill
Wednesday, May 1
Crespi at Corona del Mar
St. Francis at Westlake
Los Alamitos at Santa Margarita
JSerra at Aliso Niguel
DIVISION 2
Wild-card Round
Monday, April 29
West Ranch at Great Oak
Tesoro at ML King
Huntington Beach at Yorba Linda
Canyon at Cate
Sierra Canyon at Temecula Valley
Edison at Agoura
Crean Lutheran at San Juan Hills
DIVISION 3
First round byes: Oak Park, Millikan, Village Christian, University, Dos Pueblos
Wednesday May 1
Viewpoint at Oaks Christian
Downey at Linfield Christian
Corona at Hart
Newbury Park at El Segundo
Woodbridge at Santa Barbara
Notre Dame at Wilson
Damien at Centennial/Corona
Orange Lutheran at Northwood
El Dorado at Simi Valley
Compton at Riverside Poly
Grace at Brentwood
