Once upon a time, not in the too far distant past, North County high school teams dominated the San Diego Section playoffs. Few would refute that.
But that appears to be slowly changing.
Take this year’s boys volleyball playoffs. Yes, five of the eight teams in the premier Open Division hailed from North County along with three private schools.
Pretty much par for the course.
Top-seeded Bishop’s, one of the private schools, defeated second-seeded Torrey Pines, 3-2, to win the title.
But the lineup in the other six divisional championship games was refreshingly varied. Sixth-seeded Eastlake, one of four South County entrants in this year’s postseason field, upset top-seeded Canyon Crest Academy, 3-1, to capture the Division I title while fifth-seeded Bonita Vista stung second-seeded San Marcos, 3-1, to claim the Division II banner – the first in school history.
It doesn’t end there. Third-seeded Mission Bay defeated fourth-seeded Olympian, 3-0, in the Division III final. Yes, that’s three Metro Conference teams in a row serving as the opposition. El Cajon’s Christian High School, seeded third in Division IV, won its first-ever CIF title with a 3-2 win over top-seeded Tri-City Christian. The Patriots later advanced to the SoCal regional final.
Fourth-seeded Point Loma defeated second-seeded Hoover, 3-0, in a matchup of City Conference schools for the rights to the Division V banner. Top-seeded Escondido Adventist Academy scored a 3-0 sweep of second-seeded Bayfront Charter in a North-South pairing.
The championship honor roll included two Metro Conference teams, two private schools, two City Conference public schools and one North County public school.
A look at the boys lacrosse playoffs is even more insightful.
Top-seeded Torrey Pines crushed the competition to win its eighth consecutive Open Division championship, topping third-seeded La Costa Canyon, 15-4 to improve to 15-3 on the season.
But the other three divisional playing fields were more level. Santa Fe Christian upset top-seeded Granite Hills, 11-6, to claim the Division I championship while second-seeded Patrick Henry defeated top-seeded Westview, 9-7, to scurry off with the Division II trophy.
In the Division III final, top-seeded Valhalla edged third-seeded Clairemont, 6-5, to capture the Orange Nation’s first-ever championship in the sport.
Two East County schools and two City Conference schools supplied the competition in the three lower division finals.
Granite Hills was making its second consecutive appearance in the D-I final.
Top-seeded Valhalla (14-7) rolled through the opening two rounds of this year’s playoff field with wins over eighth-seeded Sage Creek (19-2 in the quarter finals) and fourth-seeded Olympian (10-4 in the semifinals).
The Norsemen built a 6-1 halftime lead in the championship game against Clairemont and held on to win after defusing a late four-goal rally by the Chieftains (18-2).
Attackman Ben Aldridge led VHS with two goals and two assists while Gabe Kalasho recorded 12 goalkeeper saves.
Cayden Phillips scored three goals and Tristan Diaz added two more for Granite Hills in the team’s return to the Division I final but it wasn’t enough as junior Brady Berg was key for the Eagles with six goals.
The Eagles opened the playoffs with a 17-7 win over No. 8 Santana (10-12) in an all-East County quarterfinal pairing, then edged No. 5 St. Augustine (10-11x) by a score of 10-9 in the semifinals.
All four divisional boys finals were played at May 15-16 at Patrick Henry High School.
No. 1 Torrey Pines (15-3) won the Open Division boys title for the eighth consecutive season with a 15-4 win over No. 3 La Costa Canyon (12-7) while No. 2 Patrick Henry (13-6) won the Division II crown with a 9-7 win over No. 1 Westview (17-5).
It marked the third time in the last six seasons that Patrick Henry has won a CIF banner, adding to the 2021 Division II trophy and the 2022 Division I title.
Stone Timmons (first goal and final goal), Mac Schott (go-ahead goal) and Jake Heimann (second half) each scored two goals for Henry, which received one first-half goal from Frank Rote.
All four divisional girls finals were played at Canyon Crest Academy May 15-16.
Girls champions included No. 1 Coronado (Open Division), No. 3 La Jolla (Division I), No. 1 Pacific Ridge (Division II) and No. 2 Valley Center (Division III).
Coronado and Pacific Ridge both repeated as division champions while La Jolla and Valley Center both captured their first CIF championships.
By the numbers
Granite Hills won this year’s Grossmont Hills League championship with a 6-0 league record ahead of runner-up Santana, followed by El Capitan and Helix.
It marked a league four-peat for the Eagles, who previously won GHL titles in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Beyond league play, Granite Hills has maintained one of the section’s stronger-performing teams.
The Eagles defeated St. Augustine, 9-8, to win the 2025 Division I championship game and finished runner-up in the 2022 Division II final to Santa Fe Christian (the Eagles’ 2026 finals opponent).
Granite Hills advanced to the 2023 Division I semifinals and 2024 Division I quarterfinals.
“Returning to the Division I lacrosse finals was the goal at the beginning of the year,” Granite Hills coach Henry Diaz said. “We knew we had the talent to push the Open Division possibly and if not be a high seed in D1. We had 14 seniors on this team, so the experience that we had with these guys for four years — one semifinal (2023), one quarterfinal (2024), two championship games (2022 and 2025)— were crucial to getting us back to the championship.
“Players who were huge parts this year were starting goalie Julian Boetjer, midfielders Tristan Diaz, Cayden Phillips, Logan Vance and attackman Carson Kowalsky, defenseman Logan Leone. with the help of freshman attackman Ryan Langfus.”
Valhalla, Santana, El Capitan, West Hills and Foothills Christian all qualified to represent East County in the 2026 section playoffs along with the GHL champion Eagles for an impressive six total post-season entrants.
Valhalla received the No. 1 seed in the Division III bracket and ran the table to win its first CIF championship in the sport following an 11-7 regular season showing.
Santana received the No. 8 seed in the Division I field and defeated No. 9 Point Loma, 8-7 in the opening round before advancing to meet No. 1 Granite Hills.
El Capitan received the No. 6 seed in the Division II bracket and met No. 11 West Hills in a first-round encounter, winning 14-10 to advance to meet No. 3 Pacific Ridge in the quarterfinals. Pacific Ridge won the quarterfinal duel 10-4 to end the Vaqueros’ season.
Foothills Christian received the No. 10 seed in the Division III bracket and bowed out of the competition following a 16-1 loss to No. 7 Canyon Hills in the opening round.
Valhalla has recently established itself as a team to watch. The Norsemen advanced as far as the Division III semifinals in both 2024 and 2025 before finally winning this year’s championship title.
Valhalla, seeded second in the 2025 playoff field, defeated seventh-seeded Del Lago Academy, 10-3, in the quarterfinals before ending its season with a 9-8 setback to No. 3 Mater Dei Catholic, which would go on to knock off No. 1 Classical Academy, 10-9, in the championship game.
Valhalla came up short, 16-5, to top-seeded West Hills in the 2024 bracket as the Wolf Pack would go on to shade the No. 2 San Diego Cavers in the championship game.
San Diego edged No. 3 Foothills Christian, 10-9, in the semifinals as three East County teams squared off in the division’s Final Four.
