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Sports

Palihi Lacrosse Doubled Up by Harvard-Westlake

The host Dolphins surrender five unanswered goals in the first half of Thursday's 8-4 defeat.

It was a prime time showdown between two of the best boys lacrosse programs in Southern California and something had to give.

entered Thursday night's contest against on a six-game winning streak and ranked No. 11 in this week's CIF poll. The Wolverines, meanwhile, came in undefeated and ranked ninth.  

In the end, Harvard-Westlake proved to be a little bit sharper and a little bit quicker, prevailing 8-4 despite a strong game by Palihi goalie .

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"They beat us to the ground balls, they out-hustled us," Palihi Coach said. "We know we're a much better team than how we played [tonight]."

Energized by the junior varsity team's resounding victory, the Dolphins' varsity squad hit the turf at full of confidence and motivation, having lost to Harvard-Westlake 3-2 on the same field last spring.

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It appeared Palisades might avenge that defeat when opened the scoring on a nifty move in the first quarter, but the Mission League champions took command after that. They netted five unanswered goals to take a 5-1 lead into halftime.

"We were off on our passing, our rhythm wasn't there," Hylen said. "It was bad timing in that we were on spring break last week and because of field space issues we only got to practice once for this big game. We got a lot of good shots off, just not on the cage."

Palisades was also feeling the absence of its best defender, , who sat out injured. The Dolphins mounted a comeback in the third quarter. When scored off a pinpoint feed from Satz it was suddenly 5-3, then scored to pull Palisades within a goal.

"I was happy with the way we fought back, but they answered immediately and them getting that quick goal sort of took the wind out of our sails," Hylen said.

Palisadian had one goal and one assist and hit the goal post five other times for the Wolverines (13-0). The junior has 60 points this season on 25 goals and 35 assists and has racked up 96 points in his three years on varsity. 

The Dolphins (13-3) won't have to dwell on Thursday night's disappointment for long. They head to Huntington Park High on Saturday as heavy favorites to take home the --awarded to the winner of the five-team City tournament. 

The Southern Section seeding meeting is Sunday and Hylen suspects his squad will be seeded fifth or sixth and will have to play its first-round playoff game on the road next Tuesday, possibly against Harvard-Westlake.

"I'd love to get another shot at those guys," Hylen said. "They're obviously a very strong team but we didn't play up to our capabilities."

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