TRITON REPORT

BY ZACH CAVANAGH, SAN CLEMENTE TIMES

Girls Soccer Clinches Back-to-Back South Coast League Titles

The San Clemente girls soccer team put its destiny in its own hands on Saturday, Jan. 28, and the Tritons finished the job on Tuesday, Jan. 31.

The Tritons finished chances early at San Juan Hills on Saturday, 3-0, to leapfrog into first place in the South Coast League, and San Clemente posted another shutout in a dominant showing over Tesoro this past Tuesday, 4-0, to clinch its second consecutive league championship.

San Clemente (14-1-6, 4-0-3) can finish unbeaten in league play for a second straight season with a win or draw at Capistrano Valley on Thursday, Feb. 2. CIF-SS playoff brackets will be released on Saturday, Feb. 4. The Tritons, ranked No. 8 in CIF-SS Division 1, will open the playoffs on Wednesday, Feb. 8.

San Clemente took the wheel for the South Coast League title race with its win at San Juan Hills (13-3-3, 5-3-0) on Saturday.

Following a pair of disappointing draws, the Tritons got to work right away with three goals in three ways in the first half and held San Juan Hills without many meaningful chances in a physically played shutout road victory to move into first place in the South Coast League.

“We needed that,” San Clemente coach Stacey Finnerty said. “We were not going to have a tie again. We came in by bringing it all together. We’ve had different parts of the game we’ve been working on, and we finally said after the last game, that’s it. We’re done. We had stuff in the Aliso game that worked, but it just wasn’t finishing. We weren’t going to wait this time. This was the priority to fix our team and our game, and they did it.”

Malia McMahon stepped up for a curling free kick to the left side to put San Clemente ahead in the 14th minute, and Charlotte Yeskulsky scored two goals with a penalty kick in the 29th minute and a cracking strike six minutes later in the run of play,.

Rylie McLeish and Addison Robertson combined again for the clean-sheet shutout.

At home against Tesoro on Tuesday, the Tritons spread around the scoring with goals from Maddie Finnerty, Lizzy Martin, Mia Owens and Rachel Millard to support another shutout effort to clinch the South Coast League championship.

Girls Basketball Set Up for South Coast League Championship Game

The South Coast League championship will come down to a season-finale showdown when San Juan Hills hosts San Clemente on Thursday, Feb. 2., at 7 p.m.

The Tritons (21-6, 6-1) had taken control of the league title race with a fourth-quarter surge to defend home court against the Stallions (22-5, 6-1) on Jan. 21. However, a shocking defeat at Aliso Niguel (8-17, 3-4) on Jan. 24 brought the two title contenders back to level.

San Clemente had doubled up Aliso Niguel at home, 62-31, on Jan. 10, but the suddenly hot Wolverines knocked off the league leaders at Aliso Niguel, 67-62.

The Tritons followed up with big home wins over Trabuco Hills, 58-40, last Friday, Jan. 27, and over Tesoro, 6546, on Tuesday, Jan. 31. Gianna Melton led San Clemente over Trabuco Hills with 15 points on five 3-pointers, and Kiley Quillin scored 22 points over Tesoro.

Now, San Juan Hills hosts San Clemente on the final day of the regular season in a game that will determine the South Coast League champion and a top-four seed in the CIF-SS Division 2AA playoffs. San Clemente is ranked No. 3 in the division, and San Juan Hills is ranked No. 4.

CIF-SS playoff brackets will be released on Sunday, Feb. 5 with the first round next Thursday, Feb. 9.

Boys Soccer Sits Second in South Coast League

San Clemente boys soccer got the edge on second place in the South Coast League with a shutout of Mission Viejo, 2-0, on Monday, Jan. 30. Kai Trager and Jonah Levandofsky scored for the Tritons to support another clean sheet from goalkeeper Ryan Savoie, San Clemente’s sixth of the season.

The Tritons (8-3-7, 4-1-2, 10 points) still had a shot at taking the South Coast League championship entering Monday, but Aliso Niguel (11-1-1, 6-1-1, 13 points) took care of Capistrano Valley, 5-1, in its season finale to clinch the league title.

San Clemente held a slim one-point lead over Mission Viejo (10-3-3, 4-2-1, 9 points) in the league standings with one game to play. The Tritons played at San Juan Hills on Wednesday, Feb. 1, and Mission Viejo hosted Capistrano Valley. Results were not available at press time.

CIF-SS playoff brackets will be released on Saturday, Feb. 4. The Tritons will open the playoffs on Thursday, Feb. 9.

Girls Water Polo Clinches Another League Championship

San Clemente girls water polo cemented its seventh season of domination on top of the South Coast League.

The Tritons haven’t lost a league game since 2016 and have at least a share of the South Coast League championship locked down with two games to play. San Clemente hosted Dana Hills on Wednesday, Feb. 1, but results were not available at press time. The Tritons close the regular season at Trabuco Hills on Thursday, Feb. 2.

CIF-SS playoff brackets will be released on Saturday, Feb. 4. San Clemente, which has blown away its league competition but is unranked in Division 1, will likely open the CIF-SS playoffs on Wednesday, Feb. 8.

Boys Wrestling Hosts Division 3 Dual Tournament, Falls on Ninth Tiebreaker in Second Round

The San Clemente boys wrestling team put forth a scrappy performance on Saturday, Jan. 28, but the defending three-time CIF-SS dual meet champions couldn’t get through on their home floor.

The Tritons, hosting the Division 3 dual meet tournament, edged out a win over Laguna Hills, 40-33, in the first round, but San Clemente fell to No. 1 seed Trabuco Hills on the ninth tiebreaker following a 36-36 draw.

The ninth tiebreaker is the greater number of firstpoints scored, following tiebreakers relating to unsportsmanlike conduct, total number of matches won and total number of forfeits, falls or decisions.

The Triton boys will next wrestle in the CIF-SS Eastern Division individual tournament on Feb. 10-11 at Capistrano Valley High School.

The San Clemente girls wrestling program will grapple at the CIF-SS Southern Division individual tournament on Feb. 10-11 at Corona High School. SC