Newport Beach traveled up to Culver City today to take on the SCLAX North Division’s top seeded Beverly Hills Bucks. They knew two things going in; even with a loss they still had a chance at the #2 seed in the North as they held the tiebreaker over South Bay who was facing a very good Venice Lax team. They also knew that Beverly Hills was out to avenge their five overtime loss earlier in the season at Newport.  

     The game started off with both teams unsettled and trading turnovers the first ten minutes of the game. But at the 11:35 mark Shane Sweigart took a clearing pass off a Morgan Weireter save and led a fast break clear feeding Casey Costello at the top of the box. Casey wasted no time juking the defender and putting the Bucks up by one. Nick Smith followed four minutes later with a clean face off win and a bull dodge from the restraining line and placed a left handed shot past the Newport keeper. But Beverly Hills went down a man on a technical holding call and Newport wasted no time cutting the lead to one goal and with just 15 seconds left in the first quarter Dave Taylor fed Andrew White coming from “X” and the quarter ended with Beverly Hills holding a 3-1 advantage. Beverly Hills held a 3-2 advantage at the faceoff “X” and each goalie had three saves. But the strong defensive play by the Bucks both close and at the midfield spoke to their scoring edge as takeaways by Mark Bell, Nick Smith and Kyle Standiford offset the four Buck turnovers while Newport had four turnovers with no takeaways.

      Mark Bell added another forced turnover just three minutes into the second quarter and drove on the goal until he saw Brock Livingston set up on the crease. A quick cross crease flip and an even quicker Livingston spin put Beverly Hills up 4-1. Culver City coach Devin Maxwell pushed the lead up to four goals on a solo drive from the midfield but Newport answered at the 3:15 mark with a rocket from the midfield. Dave Taylor closed out the first half scoring when he repaid a favor and fed Andrew White for the score. It was a 6-2 Buck lead going into the half. Once again face off maestro Nick Smith held a 3-2 at the “X” and a critical ground ball by Kyle Standiford and takeaways by JD Johnson and Sean Crane more than offset the lone Beverly Hills second quarter turnover.

       Just one minute and twenty seconds into the third quarter saw the most spectacular play of the game as Harvard’s Sean Kane swept around the crease without the ball. As he came beyond the pipe he made eye contact with Crespi’s Brock Livingston as he sold out and went completely horizontal Brock hit him with a hard pin point pass and Sean quicksticked the ball past the Newport keeper before he had a chance to react. Exactly three minutes later keeper Mike Gvozden worked a quick outlet pass off a save up to a streaking Buck middy that got the ball into the safe hands of Brock Livingston again. Once again the Brock to Sean Kane two man game was successful and the Beverly Hills lead stretched to six goals. But a Newport goal and lackluster play by both teams left the Bucks with an 8-3 lead going into the final quarter. Morgan Weireter split face off duty with Nick Smith and Beverly Hills went 3-4 at the “X”. JD Johnson & Mark Bell each had a critical ground ball and Sean Crane added another takeaway. Blue Jay keeper Mike Gvozden netted four saves in the quarter on five Newport shots.

     Despite the five goal deficit Newport was in no mood to give up as they rattled off two quick fourth quarter scores closing the gap to three goals. But UCSB assistant coach Andrew White got involved quickly feeding Brandon Biaggi for a score with just 3:22 left in the game. And to put the game out of reach Devon Maxwell fed Andrew White with under a minute left and Beverly Hills walked away with a 10-5 win.

      In its eleventh season in the SCLAX the Beverly Hills squad walked off the field knowing that this was their best campaign so far ending the regular season with a 9-1 record. There were still a few players on the team that remembered their first two seasons when they didn’t win a game. But they also remember 2011 when they won the SCLAX Championships but lost the State Championship to Olympic Club. They remember 2015 when they won the SCLAX Championship but lost the State Cup to Barbary Coast. And they certainly remember last year when they traveled up to the Bay as the SCLAX Champions and lost in overtime to Olympic Club. The expectations are very high for the 2017 Beverly Hills squad. They will have June 4^th off while the #2 & #3 seeds fight it out to see who travels to Culver City on June 11^{th to} take on the Bucks in the SCLAX North Division finals. The winner of that game will take on the winner of the South Division finals on June 17^th on the home field of the North Division winner for the SCLAX SOCAL Championship. And the winner of that game will host the NORCAL Champion in the State Championship with the date to be determined.