Beverly Hills Lacrosse Club

07/01/2023

Coming off a two goal loss to DUB C in their opening game the Beverly Hills squad knew it would have to play better if they were going to make it to the finals. Thursday they were nineteen guys who never played together. By Friday they had a much better feeling about who they were and how they needed to play with a group that has never taken the field as a team. The Hills Squad learned fast as they took to Team Samurai with in a resounding 7-1 win.

With 2:17 gone by in the first half long time Buck and Catawba product Michael Delabar found Jake Von Nostrand cutting across the crease and Jake didn’t disappoint as he fired a Gettysburg Bullet past the Japanese keeper giving the Bucks an early 1-0 lead. Hofstra’s Brett Tietjen followed just a minute and seventeen seconds later on a feed from Harvard’s Sean Kane. Japan then went man up on a technical foul for thirty seconds and put in their only score of the game bringing the Buck lead back to a one goal advantage. But Beverly Hills was not done scoring as they closed out the first half on a solo shot by Jake Von Nostrand with 4:20 left, another Jake goal off a loose ground ball just off the right pipe The final score of the half came at the: 05 mark as Duke’s Mike Clayton made a clearing pass to Jake Von Nostrand who fed Brett Tietjen cutting off the left post. Keeper Derrek Ostrzyzek posted five saves on six shots, Jim Blasi had two takeaways and a critical ground ball and the team committed just three unforced turnovers in the half.

The teams traded possessions in the first five minutes of the second half but at the 14:40 mark Jon Bang decided that he could outdodge three Samurai’s just off the crease and dodge he did as he put the Bucks up 6-1. The Beverly Hills squad scored their last goal of the day with 9:16 remaining as Mike Clayton found Brett Tietjen cutting to the crease as Brett garnered a hat trick for his days’ work. Second half goalie Alex Man, head coach at UCSD matched his first half counterpart with five saves. Mike wheat posted a takeaway as did Joe Campbell and Kraig Hamady. Buck wings Seth Cohen and Alex Jessup and Sean Kane played as hard as anyone on the field and claimed seven GB’s between them.

The tournament continues tomorrow as the Beverly Hills Bucks will take on Team Eire at 11:00 on field #1.

06/04/2023

07/03/2022

Couple-a BHLC vets getting dubs for Middlebury College lacrosse at the 50th Vail Lacrosse Shootout. Heading to the SHIP tomorrow!

05/16/2022

It was the last regular season game of the 2022 SCLAX season. The Beverly Hills squad is fighting for second place with The Westside Express who will have to travel down to San Diego next week to play league leading 40 Thieves while the Bucks have a bye. Venice is just playing for the sport of it. There was never any doubt who was going to walk away with the victory.

The flow of the game was irrelevant….it was all Bucks all the time. The Bucks led 4-0 after one, 10-0 at the half, 16-0- after three and finished the game outscoring Venice 20-1. Individual stats were:
·Alex Dixon the four goals and four uncharacteristic assist
·Mike Delabar had a goal and an assist scoring on the former Thousand Oaks goalie who he mentored to greatness
·George Pertessis went for two scores and two assists scoring both goals solo and from way downtown
·John Jossi had two goals
·Slamming Sammy Edwards, with the bleachers packed with his supporters scored five goals…one quickstick, two golf shots and two from outside
·Sean Kane, giving up his body to ground ball after ground ball managed to put three into the net and assisted Dixon with another
·Alex Jessup, showing off for Jemma, his soon to be a better scorer than her dad had a goal and an assist
·Grant Firestone had two assists, one off a clearing outlet from Bucks keeper Mark Bell to Sean Kane for a tally
·New Buck Mike Reale, after blowing two shots on the doorstep found his footing and beat the Venice keeper for two goals and an assist.

·Old Buck Johnny Brasko, playing in his seventeenth season with the Hills squad did what he does best and feed from Mike Deale, cranked up his pole and rocketed the shot into the net

Other things to note….. Legend in his own mind face off specialist Jared Jacobs went 18/25 at the “X”…John Brasko, Curran Sullivan, Sean Kane, John Jossi, JD Johnson, Alex Jessup, Kevin Berlandi and Grant Firestone each had at least one takeaway. Buck keeper Mark Bell filled in for absent keepers Ron Fernando & Brad Brandenburg giving up only one goal for the afternoon on nine shots. And my personal “game highlight” was Kevin Berlandi sprinting after a ground ball along the sideline on a clear and goosing the ball around his Venice counterpart, recontrolling it and pushing it up to a waiting Hills player to initiate the offence….well done Kevin!

Next week the Bucks will be off but will stay focused on the prize and have a scrimmage to stay sharp. The following week the league shuts down for Memorial Day and the following weekend, June 4th & 5th the league will host its Final Four Weekend. Right now the Bucks sit in third place with a loss to both Westside Express and 40 Thieves Westside Express sits in second with only one loss to Beverly Hills but will have to travel next week to play the one loss Thieves. It’s going to be one hell of an end to the season.

05/03/2022

04/14/2022

BEVERLY HILLS FALLS TO 40 THIEVES

Traveling to San Diego for a game is always a crap shoot. A few weeks ago we traveled down to San Diego with a “light” squad and beat a strong Beachcomber squad in one of our best games of the year. Yesterday’s squad was even lighter as we took the field with thirteen guys without our stud FOGO and without several strong players at multiple positions. Eric and I considered what would be the first forfeit in the Hills' 16 year existence. But the thirteen led by Alex Jessup, Dustin Doty and Brett Tietjen cried NO so let the game begin!

The Hills' took the field with Ron Fernando in the goal and second half goalie Brad Brandenburg graciously offered to play out of position at midfield to give some of our middies a break. Both teams moved the ball around for the fast paced, turnover-free first five minutes of the game but the Thieves finally struck at the 14:40 mark giving them a 1-0 lead. But at the 12:50 mark Alex Dixon at “X” found Brett Tietjen off the left pipe and Brett sent a worm burner to the back of the net. Three minutes later Sean Kane found Brett free again and the Hills squad took their first lead of the game. Thieves answered at the 5:10 mark to tie the score but Joe Woody would have none of it and fed Steve Brandenburg to put the Hills back up 3-2. But the Thieves had a clean win on the ensuing faceoff and tied the score to end the quarter. Hills keeper Ron Fernando collected five saves in the quarter while Sean Kane had a takeaway and the Hills only has two turnovers enabling the game to stay close.

The Thieves led off quarter number two with an outside shot at the 17:06 mark to take the lead but once again the Hills answered with a man up goal by Alex Dixon on a feed from Bret Tietjen tying the score at 4-4. 40 Thieves took a two goal lead at the 7:10 mark with an inside curl off the right pipe and an outside rocket but Alex Dixon brought the Hills within one goal on his own crease curl off the left pipe. The Thieves answered with 4:20 remaining and took a 7-5 lead into halftime. The Thieves took six out of the seven faceoffs but Ron Fernando continued his outstanding play in the net garnering eight saves in the quarter. Once again the Hills were careful with the ball with only two turnovers in the quarter. The Thieves were getting their shots from outside but the Buck netminder kept the Hills in the game.

Both teams slowed down in the third quarter with the Thieves scoring at the 14:47 mark and again with 12:31 remaining. Mike Delabar found Joe Woody cutting to the crease at the 7:10 mark and Joe didn’t disappoint closing out the quarter with the Hills trailing 9-6. Ron Fernando had six more saves in the quarter and the Hills cut their turnovers down to one keeping them very much in the game.

But the physical toll on the Hills was noticeable. After yielding the net to Ron Fernando so he could help out with middy relief Brad Brandenburg was physically done….not from his many runs at the midfield but from a couple questionable helmet to helmet hits that were missed by the officials. But the Hills squad played on. They made the trip to win a game and they were still playing hard. Once again the Thieves jumped out to two quick goals but at the 11:30 mark Mike Delabar drove from the midfield towards the goal and put one by the Thieves keeper to bring the deficit down to four. But the Thieves scored two quick ones to take a 13-7 lead. Delabar went solo for another score with 6:10 left but the Thieves answered walking away with a 14-8 victory keeping them undefeated while the Hills were alone in third place for another week.

Every single guy played his heart out. Mark Bell took most of the faceoffs trying to turn them into ground ball contests. Curran Sullivan followed around his Thieves matchup like he was his next meal. Brett Tietjen ran the offense making sure to keep the pace at a winnable level and Alex Jessup and Dustin Doty were fearless on both ends of the field. And I can’t leave out a play that happened right in front of me by the box. Sean Kane was chasing an errant Buck pass that was headed to the sideline. He dove under the Thieves player that had a step on him and “raked” the ball forward to a Hills player. He saved the possession and the Hills squad rewarded him with a score. That was just one example of how everyone played and why I was so proud of this team yesterday.

The league shuts down next Sunday for Easter. The Hills will host the San Diego Lacrosse Club the following week at Culver City High School at 3:330. It should be a great game as the Hills will be looking for revenge after the San Diego squad took them down in the SCLAX 2021 Championship.

04/05/2022

Sports! … with our friends Venice Lacrosse. Another great win to put us at 5-1 heading into a tough match up this weekend against 40 Thieves.

03/29/2022

BEVERLY HILLS LC WINS OVER RAYS

Looking for their second consecutive win against a South Division team the Bucks took to the field hosting the San Diego Rays. The Rays had already beaten the Beachcomber squad and played the Westside Express very close so the Hills squad knew they were going to be in for a very competitive game. But as the teams took the field for the opening faceoff you could see that the visiting Rays were low on numbers while the Beverly Hills squad was present in full force.

The game plan for the Bucks was to repeat last week’s performance when they played a very deliberate offensive set, kept their spacing and balanced the scoring….and the Bucks did just that. The teams traded possessions and turnovers for the first four minutes until Steve Brandenburg went behind the back with a cross crease feed to Will McCance who wasted no time putting the ball in the back of the net at the 15:23 mark. Joe followed three minutes later with an unassisted goal and the Bucks were up 2-0. At the 12:03 mark Slamm’n Sammy Edwards, the Buck’s speedy middy took a ground ball off the ensuing faceoff and fed Steve Brandenburg for the score. With less than three to play in the quarter Steve Brandenburg fed a cutting Eli Lasda from “X” and the Bucks held a 4-0 lead at the end of one. As usual Jared Jacobs was dominant going 4/5 at the “X” and Steve Brandenburg was involved in three out of the four scoring plays. Keeper Ron Fernando garnered five saves and the Hills squad went 8/10 clearing the ball. J D Johnson and Riley Lasda each had a takeaway. On the other side, with only one extra player on the sidelines you could see that the Rays were wearing down.

Halfway through the second quarter former Harvard middy Nick Smith returned to his dodging form as he cut and spun through three Ray’s defenders and uncorked a monster shot from about 15 yards out to make it a 5-0 game. George Pertessis followed with a solo rocket at the 9:10 mark and Slamm’n Sammy Edwards went lefty from outside to push the score up to 7-0 in favor of the home team. Nick Smith ended the first half scoring with a cross field feed to LSM Dustin Doty who didn’t waste the opportunity and gave the Bucks an 8-0 lead going into the half. Once again Jared dominated the faceoffs and netminder Ron Fernando closed the door on the Rays with three more saves. The Buck’s defense starting with the close poles and extending out to the middy defenders like Alex Jessup was sting staying on the Rays players hands throughout the quarter. Mark Bell, A J Hoffman and Johnny Brasko each had a takeaway during the quarter.

But the big halftime story was not the score. You had a Buck team with 12 guys on the sidelines and a Ray’s team that had quality players on the field but no reserves. Both teams wanted a more competitive game so they decided to even up the numbers as the Bucks sent six players to play with the Rays.

Brad Brandenburg went into the cage for the Hill’s squad. Joe Woody started off the second half scoring with a feed to Nick Smith. Will McCance then found George Pertessis curling off the crease and the Bucks were up 10-0. The next two scores came from the Rays but both were by Buck starters…..Sean Kane and Sammy Edwards. The quarter ended with a Beverly Hills 10-2 lead. Buck keeper had four saves in the quarter and for the first time this season Buck faceoff specialist Jared Jacobs was held under 50% at the “X”. Grant Firestone, the voice of LAX had a takeaway while fellow defender A J Hoffman garnered two as the stingy Buck’s defense refused to fold.

With the game in hand the Beverly Hills squad slowed down the game. Eli Lasda put one in from outside and George Pertessis finished up the scoring going solo after a takeaway on the other end. The final score was 12-2 in favor of the Bucks. The Bucks will host the Venice Lacrosse Club next Sunday at 3:30 before they travel back down to San Diego the following week to take on the league leading 40 Thieves Lacrosse Club.