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    Huntington Beach girls lacrosse team defeats Portola to win Division 3 title in its second season
    • May 14, 2023

    DOWNEY — In only its second year as a program, the Huntington Beach girls lacrosse team beat Portola 12-9 Saturday to win the CIF-SS Division 3 championship at Downey High.

    The Oilers had a team last season but was a freelance team without a league and didn’t qualify for the playoffs. Huntington Beach (16-4) was an at-large representative from the Sunset League this season and was the No. 3 seed in Division 3.

    CIF-SS @socaliford Girls D3 UPDATE

    : @PortolaAthDept 9
    : @HBUHSD 12
    : FINAL
    : Downey HS#CIFSSLAX pic.twitter.com/yFg65d5Jji

    — CIF Southern Section (@CIFSS) May 13, 2023

    “They are super fun, coachable and awesome teammates to each other,” Huntington Beach coach Brian Eisenberg said. “I can’t say enough great things about them.”

    The Oilers opened the season with 10 consecutive wins and Eisenberg realized that the team had championship potential.

    “We have a few girls that have a little bit more experience than the rest of the team and we knew we had some athletes coming in,” Eisenberg said. “I set the goal for a championship early in the season and they didn’t really understand what it was because we are a brand new team, but I really thought we could do this and they bought in.”

    Lauren Pilkington led the Huntington Beach offense with four goals and Nicole Hazan added three. Maya Ford, the team’s leading scorer this season, added two goals.

    Portola (20-2) trailed 5-0 early but battled its way back into the game. Jadyn Zdanavage scored six goals for the Bulldogs, which brought her season total to a county-high 134.

    The Huntington Beach defense, led by Ella Kelly, frequently double-teamed Zdanavage and made it difficult for Portola to get clean shots. Oilers goalie Rachel Levine had three saves.

    “(Rachel) is captain and has just been the mom of this team the whole year,” Eisenberg said. “Ella Kelly just started playing last January and she totally glues our defense together.”

    Amy Bebawy had five saves for Portola which helped keep the Bulldogs in the game.

    Portola beat Millikan. Heritage and Northwood in the early rounds of the playoffs.

    The Bulldogs were in danger of not having a season this year due to a lack of coaches, but soccer coaches Jeralyn Newton, Joshua Stringer and Samantha Ezratty took over coaching duties to save the season.

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    ​ Orange County Register 

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