CdM boys' lacrosse caps undefeated league season with win over rival

Los Angeles Times

20-04-2025

Corona del Mar took care of the last two things on its list before the truly important games arrive, a mere formality for the boys' lacrosse powerhouse, perhaps, but significant nonetheless.
Garrett Ip and Owen Majit led the fifth-ranked Sea Kings to a 16-5 home triumph Friday afternoon over archrival Newport Harbor to make it 14 of 15 Battle of the Bay conquests and complete their fifth successive Sunset League title run.
Now, after a final tuneup Wednesday at No. 7 Foothill, it's on to the big stuff.
'We always have our eyes set on that CIF championship, and I think that's always the goal here at CdM,' said Ip, a senior attacker and midfielder who was a freshman reserve when the Sea Kings won their third Southern Section title in 2022. 'Winning league's very important, but we have our eyes on the prize.'
The rivalry?
'It's fun,' Charlie Hamilton, a co-captain alongside Ip and Jake Card. 'It's still a rivalry. Every other sport is always intense, but it's good to get off your shoulder. It's just fun. And winning league is a goal we have, and it's nice to get it done.'
The Battle of the Bay is 'a special thing,' said Corona del Mar head coach G.W. Mix — 'it's meaningful to the kids' — but more so something of an annual rite for the lacrosse team, which has wholly dominated the series, with 19 victories in 20 meetings since the Southern Section certified the sport in 2007, eight of the last 10 by double digits. The result was not unexpected.
'We talk to the kids about that, particularly this time of year,' Mix said. 'It's far more important that we get better than we focus on the Battle of the Bay and sinking the Sailors and all of that other hullabaloo that goes along with it.'
The Sea Kings (14-5, 4-0 in the Sunset League) have won three CIF Southern Section titles — in 2012 and 2016 before the Southern Section began administrating the postseason and again three years ago. They've since reached the semifinals and quarterfinals and will face stiff competition, primarily from several Catholic powerhouses. Brackets will be revealed next Friday.
Ip and Majit are returning All-CIF standouts headed for elite liberal arts colleges in New England to play for top NCAA Division III schools — Ip to Williams, Majit to Bowdoin — who have played together since third grade. Mix says 'they're incredibly skilled with the stick, incredibly quick and fast, and that's a deadly combination for an offensive player [who] understands the game really, really well.'
'They work all the time,' said Mix, whose nearly five decades in the game includes stints as head coach of two NCAA programs, as president and general manager of the late Major League Lacrosse club L.A. Riptide, and as founder and executive of Surf Dawgs Lacrosse, a Newport Beach-based youth program that has fueled CdM's success and contributed to Newport Harbor's roster. 'They're those kids that when I drive by on a Saturday afternoon and I look through the fence, they're out here shooting. Every weekend in all fall and all summer. The best players we've had here are the kids that continuously work on their own to get better.
'It's no different in any other sport. You hear that about all the great ones, right? They know what they want to do, and they put their minds and bodies to it, and they get after it. That's what makes those two really special, is that they practice their craft all the time, dodging and shooting and throwing the ball around. The good news is they drag some of the others out there with them, which tends to make us a little better.'
That work ethic, Ip said, is what he admires most about his brother, Logan, who led CdM's 2022 charge and is now a junior midfielder and captain for Harvard's top-10 team.
'He definitely played a big factor [in my development],' he said. 'We used to shoot in the backyard all the time. ... He's a really hard worker, and he's a smart player. He taught me to study both the aspects of playing the game and the mental side of the game.'
Mix calls Logan 'phenomenal, and as good a player as he was, he was every bit as good a leader and every bit as good a human being.' Garrett is 'very similar' to his brother.
Garrett says he is 'better than my brother.'
'Good for him,' Mix said. 'In a lot of ways, he may be, because he's done some things that Logan didn't have to do. Logan had a really good group around him, a lot of good teammates that are all playing Division I lacrosse now. Garrett hasn't had quite the supporting cast, but he's had a bunch of wonderful kids around him, no doubt.'
Ip started Friday's romp a minute and a half in, assisted the first of two Alex Aldoroty goals to double the advantage, then added a fourth just before the end of the first quarter. The Sea Kings had six before Newport Harbor struck, and Mix began emptying his bench after halftime.
Ip and Gavin MacBeth off the bench finished with a hat-trick and two assists, Majit tallied a goal and four assists, and Domingos Alves and Auggy Luong added two goals. Griffin Habermehl and Hamilton led a dominant defense, and Tucker Rosenberger and Card were key in buildup and in counterpress.
Braden Brock led Newport Harbor (6-10, 0-2) with two goals and an assist.
It was CdM's fifth straight Battle of the Bay triumph, by far the tightest of the five. The Sailors' only win in the series was a 5-4 decision in 2019, to win the Sunset League title, and they've not been to the playoffs since. Winning their remaining games — at home Monday against 10th-ranked Los Alamitos (14-3, 2-1) and Wednesday against Huntington Beach (7-8, 0-3) — would give them the Sunset League's other automatic playoff berth.
An at-large berth, otherwise, appears unlikely, acknowledged third-year head coach Blake Lenk, a former Newport Harbor standout. He's playing a longer game. It's a junior-heavy team, and next year looks promising.
'We have a lot of areas to develop,' Lenk said. 'The biggest thing is overall mindset. We look to focus on not tallying wins and losses, but rather tallying wins and lessons, because there's always something to learn every time we get out there on the field.
'They've got a lot to learn, but they bring the effort, attitude, energy. Those are the things we can control. As long as we can keep in control of the things that we can control, we can expect positive results out of them.'
Winning a CIF title 'would be a dream,' said Hamilton, who as a freshman was brought up from junior varsity for the playoff run in 2022. 'We've just got to keep our head down and block out the noise and keep rolling. As long as we worry about ourselves and take care of the small things, I think we'll be fine.'
The other contenders are mostly Catholic schools, led by defending champion Santa Margarita (13-2), Trinity League champion Mater Dei (11-3) and Los Angeles Loyola (17-3), California's top-ranked side.
Loyola is 'a different level,' said Mix, whose team was drilled, 16-4, two weeks prior by the Cubs. They're significant title favorites. The only teams to beat them come from states with deeper lacrosse cultures.
'They've got speed and athleticism and depth,' said Mix, who had Cubs coach Jimmy Borell on his roster during his Riptide tenure. 'I was giving him a hard time after the game, talking about the embarrassment of riches that he has there. But he's got a great culture and a great group of kids. They work hard, play hard, but they're talented. Just big, strong, athletic kids.'
Ip isn't intimidated.
'They're a pretty talented team,' he said. 'But I think I'll take my group of guys up against any group any day of the week.'