Attackman Patrick Jette scored four goals and his twin brother Adam was a force in goal as the two siblings closed out their prep careers Friday night by leading the Torreys to a 10-8 victory over St. Augustine in the CIF boys Division I championship final at Del Norte High School.
“They’re game-changers,” second-year La Jolla Country Day coach Kyle Espejo said of the two seniors who are four-year lettermen for the Torreys boys lacrosse program which earned its first-ever CIF title. “I don’t know off the top of my head how many saves Adam had, but if you don’t score goals, it’s hard to win.”
Both teams came into the match with the same record, and No. 2 seed La Jolla Country Day finished the season at 15-7 while St. Augustine, the top seed for Division I, finished at 14-8.
“We’re two evenly-matched teams, and their goalkeeper was very effective against us,” said Saints coach John Tolla, who has been at the helm since the program began in 2010. “We put enough shots on him, but he stopped more than he let in.”
“I still can’t believe it,” Adam Jette said after celebrating with his teammates. “This is such a great group of guys, and we worked every second of every day to get here.”
Patrick Jette scored three of his four goals consecutively in the first half as the Torreys overcame an early 2-1 deficit.
“This game was redemption for us after we lost to them earlier in the season,” Patrick Jette said of a 12-8 regular-season loss to the Saints in March. “And this was the last game we would play together as teammates.”
Adam Jette will play collegiate soccer at the University of Oregon, while Patrick is bound for Salisbury University in Maryland.
La Jolla Country Day reached the championship match with a 7-5 victory over No. 3 seed Scripps Ranch in the semifinals, while St. Augustine survived a semifinal matchup against No. 5 seed Granite Hills by outlasting the Eagles, 12-10.
St. Augustine struck first in the final on a Colin Foley goal just 56 seconds into the match, but the Torreys tied the score just over two minutes later on a point-blank goal by Luke Givens. The Saints took the lead again on Anthony Ivanjack’s 64th goal of the season with 7:17 left in the opening period, but the top-seeded squad was held scoreless until late in the second quarter while La Jolla Country Day netted five unanswered goals.
Patrick Jette found the back of the net for three consecutive goals, including the go-ahead score with 4:35 left in the first period on a nifty wraparound shot. Jette’s third goal of the game came with 1:36 left in the quarter and gave the Torreys a 4-2 lead at the end of the period.
Freshman James Picinich got in on the scoring for La Jolla Country Day when he netted a goal just over two minutes into the second period for a 5-2 advantage, and then there was no scoring for nearly seven minutes before junior Jordan Cohen netted a goal for the Torreys for a four-goal lead.
Ivanjack scored again from 12 yards out with 2:32 left in the half, which ended with the Torreys in front, 6-3.
Third-period goals by Cohen, Patrick Jette and sophomore Isaac Grassi gave La Jolla Country Day a 9-5 lead at the end of the period, and when Grassi scored again with 9:27 left in the match, the Torreys led by four goals again at 10-6.
The Saints, who improved from a 4-15 season a year ago, closed the gap with goals by Ivanjack with 7:05 left and fellow senior co-captain Jack Elgas with 29 seconds remaining, but La Jolla Country Day secured the win for the title.
“We lost to Coronado in the semis last year, and the seniors this year remembered how that felt,” said Espejo. “Our senior leadership this year has been the reason for our success.”
Hoff is a freelance writer.