Falcon lacrosse preys on Poway
By Max Duncan McArthur

The Torrey Pines lacrosse program scored a big win May 4 under the lights of Falcon Stadium, beating up on rival and #5-ranked San Diego power Poway High School 5-1 in front of the home crowd. The Falcon defense was dominant both in the interior and at the midfield. Head coach John Principi was proud of his players physicality.

"Our boys walked out on to that field Friday night and won on heart. Sometimes in a sport this tough, that is all it comes down to. Riley (Myrick), Alex (Sawaya), and Max (Gradinger) really played well together, and it seems to me they are really beginning to peak at the right time. Our other long poles have also stepped up over the course of the second half, Matt (Turner) and Danny (Schatz) add a great deal of depth to our defensive schemes. It goes without saying that Joey (Hegener) played out of his mind, again. But I guess we should just start expecting that from the young man, considering how consistently good he has been."

The coach does not lie, or even embellish in the least the play of his young keeper, junior goalie Joey Hegener is en fuego. Of the shots he stopped against Poway, at least a handful were point blank riffles that no other backstop in San Diego County saves in the same situation.

"Joey has really become a leader on this team," Principi explained. "That is not to say that we don't already have unbelievable senior leadership in place, because we do, but even the older guys have a great deal of respect for what Joey has been doing.

“It seems like in every game we have played, he has either changed the momentum of a game with a big save, or not so simply stopped one that made me say to another coach 'Did you see that?' Joey Hegener is the kind of goalie who is fun to watch, even to the untrained eye."

Offensively, Chase Horning again came up big for Torrey Pines with a hat trick. Each of his three goals seemed to distance TPHS from Poway more dramatically than the last, given the level of defense that was being played.

"They were really battling out there, and there keeper played quite a game as well," Horning admitted graciously. "We really should have scored 10 or 12 out there, with the looks that we were getting, but you have to take your hat off to a few of those saves. Bottom line though, we did what we had to do to get a win. Poway is a good team, and we bottled them up tight. You have to walk away from that one feeling pretty good, knowing that team was in the CIF finals last year."

Junior midfielder Goerdie Shafer was outstanding on face-offs, winning roughly 80 percent of the draws he took. He also assisted on a goal. Junior attackman Chris Brown also got in on the action, scoring one and adding a helper for Torrey Pines.

The Falcons last regular season game will be played Saturday night (May 12) vs. La Costa Canyon, 7:30 p.m. at TPHS.