The Chargers 6-2 win over Foothill forced a three-way coin flip for the SVL playoff seedings.

By ARTIE CASAS

OCVarsity.com

Taking advantage of scoring opportunities really is important when two defensive oriented teams collide.
On Thursday night at Beckman High School El Toro did just that in a 6-2 Sea View League win over Foothill.
“My goalie was spectacular and we played a great team defensive game,” El Toro Coach Don Stoll. “Our offense really made things happen today.”
The win gave the Chargers a share of the Sea View League title with Foothill and Northwood, who all finished with a 4-1 league record.
“Both teams were going to neutralize each other on defense so we knew it was going to come down to converting scoring opportunities,” Foothill Coach Jim Brumm said “We are disappointed that we lost the game, but we are glad to have a share of the league title.”
After the game the Athletic Director from each school flipped a coin to determine the SVL seeding order for CIF-SS DI playoffs. Northwood won the coin flip and will enter the playoffs as the No. 1 team from the SVL. Since El Toro has the head-to-head advantage over Foothill, the Chargers will go into the playoffs as the No.2 team and the Knights will be the No. 3 team.
“This hurts us for the playoffs. More than likely we are going to have to play some league champion in their home pool next week,” Brumm said. “But right now I have no clue where CIF is going to put us in the playoffs. It’s a unique situation so you just never know.”
From the start El Toro jumped out to the early lead and never looked back.
The Chargers (22-4) have been nutritiously slow starters, but on this night two penalty shots by Griffin White in the first quarter gave them some momentum early on.
“Most of the time we don’t jump out that fast. Usually we have to work our way into the game,” White said. “You could see that they were really down after that second goal.”
The Knights (17-9) cut their deficit in half when Paul Pickell scored on a counter attack with a shot from the perimeter with 4:10 left in the second quarter.
El Toro regained its two goal advantage in the final seconds of the first half when Jeff Zaccaro scored on a drop shot from the post.
In the third period the Chargers pulled away for good with three straight goals. White notched his third goal of the game with easy goal from the post that was set-up by Zaccaro with 6:25 left. Then Greg Zaccaro made it 5-1 on a shot from the perimeter with 4:46 left. Spencer White later capped off El Toro’s third quarter offensive onslaught with tip shot that was set-up by Greg with 1:35 left to make it 6-1.
“For a team like ours it even more important that we got out to such a big lead because it helps our confidence grow,” Stoll said
Foothill’s Brendan Verloop added a goal from the post on play set-up by Sean Ison with 1:25 left in the third to round out the scoring for the game.
The Chargers defense was anchored by Tommy O’Connell’s 12 saves to go along with his teams eight field blocks on the night.
“Everything we did worked out there tonight,” O’Connell said. “We played really good team defense and made them take tough shots.”
The Knights goaltender Jay Lovero made 10 saves to keep his team in contention.

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