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Crescenta Valley girls’ lacrosse captures first league title

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In just its third year of existence, the Crescenta Valley High girls’ lacrosse team had cornerstone athletes ready to criss-cross the field with an eye on winning the program’s first Pacific League championship.

Crescenta Valley completed the task in impressive fashion Wednesday, as eight players scored at least one goal en route to a 15-5 league win at Westridge.

Crescenta Valley (11-3, 4-0 in league) gained at least a split of the league title after beating West Ranch in its previous match. All that stood in the way for Crescenta Valley was Westridge (1-2 in league).

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Crescenta Valley, which took second in league last season before qualifying for the United States Southern Section Los Angeles Division I playoffs, used a 12-0 run to best the Tigers.

“I was really confident coming into the game and normally I’m incredibly nervous,” Crescenta Valley Coach Boz Crowther said. “When we went to pitch the program to our administration three years ago, we had a plan in place. Part of the plan was winning league by the end of the third season and now we’ve done that.

“I think it was time. We have a lot of contributors and they are experienced players. We’ve had a group that’s been here since the first year.”

Crescenta Valley received four goals from Leah Crowther and three from Madeline Heeg. Falcons goalkeeper Sabrina White finished with 12 saves.

The Falcons held a 3-2 lead with 11:57 remaining in the first half before scoring 12 straight goals. They started the run on a goal by Lizzie Hales with 10:43 remaining in the first half to make it 4-2 and capped the spurt on a goal by Crowther to pad the lead to 15-2 with 8:37 to go in the contest.

“That’s the thing with our team is that we have a lot of scoring threats,” said Leah Crowther, a senior attacker who had three goals during the surge. “That was a big point in the game getting 12 straight goals.

“We know how to work well with each other and we are always encouraging one another. We came so close to winning league last year and that made us want to win it that much more this year.”

Heeg also scored three goals during Crescenta Valley’s run.

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Crescenta Valley received two goals apiece from Samara Yarnes and Abby Sheklow and one each from Hales, Peyton Lindman-Marshall, Brooke Bell and Allie Foster.

Crescenta Valley held a 9-2 halftime lead, getting the final goal of the half from Yarnes with 2:32 remaining.

“We really don’t have a weak link on our team,” said White, a senior. “We have the ability to go out there and score goals and we can also play great defense. My defense played so well in front of me.

“Something clicked for us today once we got on to the field and we took it from there against a team that we’ve had some real close games with the last couple of years. It’s just great to win league, especially when you have so many people being able to contribute.”

charles.rich@latimes.com

Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich

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