Canyon Crest lacrosse wins first league championship in school history

The Canyon Crest Academy lacrosse team won the Valley League title, the first league championship in school history.

The Ravens finished the regular season on a five-game win streak with a 12-6 record, clinching the fifth seed in the CIF Division 2 playoffs. Their post-season kicked off with a 16-7 home win over University City before falling to San Dieguito Academy in a hard-fought quarterfinals match-up on May 13, losing by one Mustang goal in the final few seconds.

“This season was special for many reasons but the main one was that our senior class was the first class that had gone through the program with me from their freshman year to their senior year.” ” said Coach Alex Siegal.”This is the first class that I’ve watched grow and helped develop from wide-eyed freshman to strong and confident seniors.”

Senior Alan Gereb in action.

(Charles Jurisaga)

The 16 seniors on the roster included Colin Matthews-Schott, Chase Prescott, Aidan Wojtkowski, Matthew Dysart, Kyle Wisbach, Kourosh Sadr, Alan Gereb, Dylan Kearse, Arnav Naik, Nathan Hartmann, Kailash Turmella, Jite Jeenagala, Charles Jurisaga, Eli Karpman, Ender Peyzner and Cooper Smith.

A few have the opportunity to play at the next level in college—Kyle Wisbach will try out for Colorado Boulder’s team, Ender Peyzner might try out for the University of Denver, and Colin Matthews-Schott may go out for the team at Indiana University.

“This season meant a lot to me because of how much time and effort the seniors had poured into this program,” Siegal said. “We prepared for teams by watching a ton of film, having individual game plans for each team and spending countless hours reviewing film of our practices and finding new ways to get better.”

Highlights from the season include beating Rancho Bernardo in overtime for the second year in a row, beating Del Norte, beating Westview and, of course, winning the league title for the first time. Siegal said parent support was also a key piece of the team’s success this year.

Siegel, who is also a science teacher at the school, is himself a product of the Canyon Crest lacrosse program—he started playing the sport for the first time when he was a freshman.

“Coaching at CCA is a passion project of mine as I hope to grow the program to be a consistent contender in playoffs,” Siegel said. “Coming back as both a teacher and a coach, I strive to have the same impact on student-athletes that Coach Shakeri had on me when I was a student.”