SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Boys Lacrosse

Eastlake Titans stand alone atop Metro Conference

By Phillip Brents
Posted April 28, 2005

When Eastlake senior Adrian Van Vleck suffered a fractured clavicle on March 15, many thought his season was over. Some thought the resurgent Titans’ season was over.

Hilltop, which had a chance to tie Eastlake for the Metro Conference lead with a victory on April 21, received a surprise in the second half of the teams’ matchup. Van Vleck was spotted on the field in full uniform. He ended the game with four goals to help spark a second-half rally that saw the Titans outscore their challenger 8-2 in posting a statement-making 11-4 victory.

“We kind of ride momentum. Once we get something going, we just play at our best. We got a few goals and we got something going,” said Van Vleck, who entered the game under the cloak of secrecy to help foil the Lancers’ upset bid.

Van Vleck had worked hard all offseason to emerge as the team’s leading scorer with 21 goals in its opening six games. The injury appeared to negate all that hard work. What it did was not only inspire Van Vleck to work even harder during his recuperation period but also force the rest of the Eastlake team to find itself as a team in the truest sense of the word.

The Titans held a 5-2 before Van Vleck scored his first goal. Overall in the game against Hilltop, Eastlake received goals from six other players, including two from Hughes and single goals from Seth Breeden, Jovanny Lopez, Matt Scott, Zack McElroy and James Hiney in support of goalkeeper David Johnson, who was credited with 15 saves.
Breeden, a sophomore, has become one of the finds of the season with 22 goals, according to Titans coach Doug Murphy. Breeden’s arrival to the spotlight was set up by adversity by a string of injuries. Besides the injury to Van Vleck, the Titans also suffered injuries to Pablo Santana and Juan Camacho. “We were down three of our best attack-men,” Murphy said.

Hilltop had led 1-0 early on a goal by Kevin Arney and tied the contest at a pair of goals when Chris Hunt scored a minute into the second quarter. However, the Titans entered halftime leading 3-2 on a goal by Kyle Hughes and came out in the third quarter by scoring four unanswered goals to lead 7-2.

The victory against Hilltop raised Eastlake’s league record to 7-0 and its overall record to 9-6 with non-league wins against both Santana and Helix and losses to Granite Hills, La Jolla, Grossmont, Preuss, Fallbrook and Scripps Ranch.

The Titans lost one-goal games to both Fallbrook and Preuss and fell by two goals to Scripps Ranch, which entered the teams’ April 19 contest ranked 13th in the section.

The Lancers fell to 4-2 in league play, 10-4 overall.

“We just focused on winning the game. It wasn’t pretty,” Murphy said. “Ground balls are the key to success. Basically, if you control the ground balls, you control the game. Hilltop gave us some great competition. Our goal all along has been to have a winning season. Now it’s gone to winning Metro and going undefeated. But we still have three tough teams to go through.”

Van Vleck scored all his four goals in succession, hiking the score from 5-2 to 9-3. “I dropped the ball three times at first. I took a couple hits on my shoulder. It felt OK,” said Van Vleck, who was out of the lineup for six weeks. “A lot of people stepped up since I’ve been gone. They had to.”

The Titans, who were scheduled to play at Chula Vista on Thursday, close out conference play with games against Otay Ranch on May 2 at Eastlake and May 9 at Bonita Vista.