The 2025 spring sports playoffs are starting to wrap up and thus far post-season competition has been generally kind to East County qualifiers.
•Valhalla High School’s boys tennis team captured this year’s San Diego Section Division II championship. It’s a first for the Norsemen in their third trip to the finals in the program’s 50-year history.
•The Granite Hills High School boys lacrosse team claimed this year’s San Diego Section Division I title. It’s the second lacrosse banner in school history and the first since 2019.
•Helix Charter’s boys track and field team won the section team title while Steele Canyon’s girls track team finished runner-up for the honor.
•Valhalla’s boys lacrosse team, seeded No. 2 in the section’s Division III bracket, finished runner-up in its division following a dramatic overtime loss.
•Top-seeded Monte Vista finished runner-up in the Division V boys volleyball game to cap a highly successful 23-13 season with a Grossmont Valley League championship in tow
State championship events are scheduled this weekend to put a wrap on what has been a highly successful season. All-star games in selected sports will serve as a final chapter.
Sticks up
Granite Hills has long had a tradition as an East County power in boys lacrosse from the start. This year’s championship title cements that in the present day.
The Eagles received the No. 5 seed in the Division I bracket. Before the tournament was over, the El Cajon-based team had pulled off three upset victories to crown themselves division champions.
“We knew coming into the season that we had a solid team coming back,” Granite Hills coach Henry Diaz said. “We are junior heavy and had a solid year of defense the year before. Going into the season we knew that we had to be able to compete right off the bat.
“Scheduling games like San Marcos, Carlsbad, Del Norte and St Augustine we had to put our best foot forward early. Facing those teams, we went 0-4, but we were competing and late-game mistakes cost us those games. So, we regrouped after the Saints loss and really came together and started working well with each other and concentrated on what each person brought to this team and how everyone played a role.
“After that we ran off 11 wins in a row to co-champion the Grossmont Hills League and then went into playoffs playing our best lacrosse.”
The Eagles dispatched 12th-seeded Scripps Ranch by a score of 14-2 in the first round to advance to the quarterfinals. That’s where upset No. 1 took place – a 7-5 win over the fourth-seeded Del Norte Nighthawks (13-3).
“Going into the playoffs, we knew we would face the teams we lost to in the regular season and coming off a big win versus a talented La Jolla team (6-5 on April 30) set us up with all those previous matchups,” the Granite Hills coach recounted. “Our entire team played dominant in the first-round game against Scripps Ranch and then we visited Del Norte, which was having a great year. We went into their house and the defense played a phenomenal game only giving up five goals.”
Next up was the top-seeded Carlsbad Lancers, who had eliminated the eighth-seeded Poway Titans, 9-7, in the quarterfinals. The Lancers (12-9) would be Granite Hills’ second upset victim by a score of 10-7 in the semifinals.
“Going into Carlsbad next was I think our best effort because we played great on both sides of the ball,” Diaz said. “Our defense was playing hard, fast lacrosse, Julian Boetjer (goalkeeper) was making great saves and seeing his outlets right away. Our offense was being led by a four-person threat with Tristan Diaz, Cayden Phillips, Logan Vance and Carson Kowalsky having huge games for us.”
The game was tied, 4-4, before the East County visitors reeled off three unanswered goals to take a 7-4 lead. Tristan Diaz had three goals and Vance and Phillips each had two goals in support of Boetjer (nine saves).
That left two teams remaining in the championship game, played May 16 at Westview High School. Second-seeded St. Augustine (12-7-1) was destined to be upset No. 3 for the Eagles. But it was by no means easy as Phillips scored the game-winning goal with time counting down to the last minute to lift Granite Hills to a 9-8 victory and the division banner.
“The championship game win was led by another great showing by our defense all game and Julian keeping us in the game,” Diaz said. “The first five minutes of the second half we came out firing from all angles, including getting some huge wins at the face-off from Shane Burns. Attackman Carson Kowalsky had two goals right away with Tristan and Logan having one each and Cayden the game winner to seal the deal and bring the championship home. Overall, it was a team effort that we knew the team could do.”
Top players included Boetjer in the net, defensemen Austin Real, Lincoln Baldwin and Logan Leone, attackman Kowalsky (two goals), midfielders Phillips (two goals), Tristan Diaz (two goals), Vance (two goals) and Burns “winning some very important face offs,” the Granite Hills coach noted.
The Eagles finished their memorable season with a 16-5 overall record, following a 5-1 showing in league play.
Granite Hills’ lone league loss was 4-3 to Santana in the teams’ league opener on March 15. The Eagles avenged that loss with a 5-4 overtime win over the Sultans on April 18.
Granite Hills closed out league play with a 14-1 win over visiting Grossmont on May 1.
The 2025 section playoffs featured two other lower-seeded teams claiming division championships. Second-seeded San Dieguito Academy (18-3) defeated top-seeded Westview (12-7) by a score of 5-1 in the Division II final while third-seeded Mater Dei Catholic (15-5) upset top-seeded Classical Academy (17-4) by a score of 10-9 for the Division III banner.
The only top seed among the four divisional brackets to prevail unscathed, Torrey Pines (15-5) downed second-seeded La Costa Canyon (12-7) by a count of 13-8 to win the Open Division title.
A total of seven East County teams took part in this year’s playoff tournament. Besides Granite Hills, Santana received the No. 7 seed in Division I, while Helix Charter was seeded third in Division II along with No. 7 El Capitan and No. 8 West Hills. Valhalla received the No. 2 seed in Division III while Foothills Christian was seeded 11th.
Santana (13-9) defeated 10th-seeded Pt. Loma (13-6) by a score of 9-5 to advance to meet St. Augustine in the quarterfinals (an 11-6 win for the host Saints) while El Capitan and West Hills also won their opening-round games. El Capitan eliminated 10th-seeded Mission Hills (8-9) by a 16-10 score while West Hills edged ninth-seeded University City (12-7) by a 7-6 score.
El Capitan (10-9) ended its season with a 16-6 setback to second-seeded San Dieguito Academy while West Hills (12-10) bowed out of the playoffs following a 12-4 loss to top-seeded Westview.
Both Helix (15-4) and Valhalla (13-5) received byes to the quarterfinals. Helix defeated sixth-seeded Mt. Carmel (13-7) by a score of 11-7 while Valhalla slipped past seventh-seeded Del Lago Academy (10-8) by a 10-8 score.
That put Helix and Valhalla in the semifinals. Neither advanced beyond that point. San Dieguito Academy defeated Helix, 16-5, while No. 3 Mater Dei Catholic upended Valhalla, 9-8, in overtime.
Foothills Christian (4-14-1) lost 15-6 to sixth-seeded Preuss/UCSD (13-5) in the opening round.
