The San Clemente girls lacrosse team took the field on April 12 with one goal in mind: do what no Orange County team had done in five years.

San Clemente accomplished that goal by snapping Foothill’s 47-game winning streak against Orange County teams. The streak had started in 2019.

Foothill ended San Clemente’s season in 2023 in the CIF-SS Division 1 semifinals and has won three consecutive CIF-SS Division 1 championships in convincing fashion.

“They (Foothill) are the standard and every year we are always prepping for them,” San Clemente coach Josh Cain said. “It felt great that we were able to fully put a plan together and execute it. It was just something to watch. It was just like ‘Is this my team? Are they really doing this right now?’ and they did. They were hungry for it.”

Triton Girls’ LAX defeats #1 Foothill 6-4 tonight! Big win against a team that had not lost to an OC school in nearly 5 yrs. Charlotte Yeskulsky 3G/1A; Sophia Yeskulsky 2G; Taylor Juncai 2G & Kayla Jones 6 Saves – a great team win! ⁦@ocvarsity⁩ ⁦@latsondheimer pic.twitter.com/FH8iHmkBLr

— Triton Athletics (@SCHSTritons) April 13, 2024

A major part of San Clemente’s success has been twin sophomores Sophia and Charlotte Yeskulsky. The duo has combined for 113 goals and 132 points this season.

The twin sisters will play for the German National Team in Portugal this summer at the European Championships.

“They are very spectacular and special, but I think the biggest credit to them that no one sees is the amount of time they have invested off the field,” Cain said. “It’s very rare that you have two girls that pick up their first lacrosse sticks as ninth graders and become top-end recruits by their sophomore year. That two-year turnaround is really unheard of.”

San Clemente’s Taylor Juncaj had two goals in the win over Foothill and goalkeeper Kayla Jones had six saves.

San Clemente has reached the quarterfinals in each of the last three seasons and made it to the semifinals in 2023.

Cain believes the race for the CIF-SS championship is more competitive than in recent years.

“Even though no other teams have beaten Foothill, they have had a number of close games,” Cain said. “While in year’s past it’s been Foothill and everyone else, I feel like this year any of the top four to six teams could do it. We are going to see which team catches lightning in a bottle and I think we have a good opportunity to do it.”

AROUND ORANGE COUNTY

• San Clemente’s boys lacrosse team also had a big week. The Tritons knocked off Trabuco Hills 13-8 Tuesday to throw a wrench in the South Coast League standings. Jack Bunker had 10 points (3 goals, 7 assists) in the win and Brady Fish added four goals.

Triton Boys’ LAX keeps SCL title hopes alive after important 13-8 win over Trabuco Hills tonight. Jack Bunker 3G/7A; Brady Fish 4G/1A; Miles Bonner 2G/2A; Trey Ghyzel 3G & Jackson Blunt 71% Save Pct in goal. Watch Brady Fish score here! ⁦@ocvarsity⁩ ⁦@latsondheimer pic.twitter.com/7gEUyxLUOj

— Triton Athletics (@SCHSTritons) April 17, 2024

• Tesoro currently sits in first place in the South Coast standings with a 4-1 league record. If San Clemente beats Tesoro on Monday, there will likely be a three-way tie for the South Coast League championship between the two schools and Trabuco Hills.

• Since the South Coast League is guaranteed only two automatic playoff berths, a coin flip might decide which league champion has to apply for an at-large berth into the playoffs.

• St. Margaret’s boys lacrosse team has made it through the gauntlet of its regular-season schedule without a loss. The Tartans beat highly-ranked Redwood, Foothill, Mater Dei and Loyola in consecutive games. Playing a challenging schedule like that this late in the season is good preparation for the playoffs.

• Aliso Niguel’s boys lost to Santiago of Corona in the Division 2 championship game last season. The Wolverines got some redemption with a 7-5 win over Santiago on Monday. Tommy Smith and Nathan Perkins each had three points for Aliso Niguel in the win.

• Huntington Beach might be the most improved boys team in the county. Sean Costello leads the county in ground balls and Brycen Janney is among the county leaders in save percentage. The Oilers will play Los Alamitos next week in a game that will decide which team finishes second in the Sunset League.

• In girls lacrosse, Mackenzie Farley of St. Margaret’s is the first player in the state to score 100 goals this season.

• The Trinity League girls championship will be decided Tuesday when Mater Dei and Santa Margarita play. Mater Dei has scored over 20 goals in each of its last three games and narrowly beat JSerra 11-10 in overtime recently. Freshman Ava Hefner scored the winning goal against JSerra and Makenna Evans is among the top scorers in the county.

• Santa Margarita’s girls team is No. 6 in the CIF-SS polls. Paige Peters is a candidate for county player of the year and Catie Maroutsos is also a dangerous offensive player.

• Northwood’s girls team is in first place in the Pacific Coast League and has a good chance of winning its first league championship in school history. Nikki Sanders leads the team in scoring with 55 goals. Lauren Low leads the team in ground balls and draw percentage.

Another Tax Day has come and gone, and most Americans believe they pay too much. One recent poll revealed that 56% say they pay more than their fair share. Unfortunately, I fear this is just the beginning considering the insane level of debt Washington policymakers have accumulated over the years. With this in mind, here are some important facts about our tax system that you might not know.

The payroll tax is the heaviest burden for most taxpaying Americans, but the income tax is more visible and painful to a lot of people. While we are accustomed to it — and while it affects some Americans’ decisions about how much to work, invest or save — the income tax didn’t exist for most of our country’s life.

In 1895, the Supreme Court ruled against a direct tax on the incomes of American citizens and corporations, something that had been included in the previous year’s Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act. The court found that such a tax violated the constitutional requirement that tax apportionments among the states be based on population. It took a constitutional amendment — the 16th — to eventually change that and pave the way for the modern income tax.

The very first Internal Revenue Service Form 1040, introduced in 1913 after the ratification of the 16th Amendment, was remarkably straightforward compared to what we know today. It was only four pages long, including instructions, and the top tax rate was 7% on incomes above $500,000, which is over $15 million in today’s dollars. Some people were horrified by a 7% tax and warned that it could put us on a slippery slope to higher rates — maybe even above 10% (!) — imposed on a vast majority of people. They were called crazy for fearing such a thing.

And yet, as predicted by a few realists, the income-tax rate not only increased, but the threshold at which it’s applied went down. During the 1950s and the Eisenhower administration, the top marginal tax rate on incomes reached 91% for individuals. This rate applied to incomes over $200,000 (about $2 million today) for single filers and $400,000 (about $4 million today) for married couples filing jointly. These high taxes were part of a broader policy to manage post-war fiscal adjustments and fund federal programs. These rates also failed to raise as much money as you would think due to many loopholes in the tax code.

While the top marginal rate is much lower today, the income-tax code remains remarkably complicated. Will McBride, a scholar at the Tax Foundation, recently wrote that “As of 2021, the U.S. income tax code was 4.3 million words long and growing. That’s much longer, and presumably much more complicated, than tax codes found in other countries.” There are several reasons for this.

First, many welfare programs are administered through the tax code. In recent testimony before the Senate Budget Committee, the Cato Institute’s Chris Edwards wrote that “The tax code is an increasing mess. The number of official tax expenditures has risen from 53 in 1970 to 205 today, making IRS administration and enforcement ever more difficult. We know from experience that complex tax expenditures, such as the low-income housing tax credit and earned income tax credit, generate substantial errors and abuse.”

This progressivity is generally ignored by those who argue that taxing the rich is the solution to reducing the burgeoning U.S. national debt. Soaking the rich, while perhaps appealing in its simplicity, misses the scale of the problem. Brian Riedl, a Manhattan Institute senior fellow, noted that if we were to confiscate 100% of the income of everyone making over $500,000 per year, it would fund the government for less than a year. This puts into perspective the enormity of the $34 trillion national debt versus the income of the rich.

Taxing the rich is a convenient distraction hiding the reality that if spending isn’t cut, taxes will have to be raised on everyone, a lot. On this tax week, I suggest Congress starts cutting.

Veronique de Rugy is the George Gibbs Chair in Political Economy and a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

A former member of a neo-Nazi group that prosecutors allege is tied to the killing of Blaze Bernstein by his former classmate Samuel Woodward outlined the inner-workings of the militant organization during testimony this week in Woodward’s ongoing murder trial.

Prosecutors argue that Woodward’s alleged hatred of gay and Jewish people led him to drop out of college and join Atomwaffen Division — an organization federal authorities have described as a racially motivated violent extremist group — before driving Woodward to stab Bernstein to death in 2018 and bury his body in a shallow grave on the edge of a Lake Forest park.

Woodward’s attorney acknowledged at the outset of the trial that Woodward killed Bernstein. The defense denies it was a hate crime, however, leaving the motivation for the slaying — particularly whether or not it was driven by the ideology espoused by Atomwaffen Division — a key question for jurors.

A former member of Atomwaffen — who identified himself in court as Brian Murphy — spent most of the last three days on the stand describing his first-hand experience in the group, which he left shortly after Bernstein’s death. Murphy said he cooperated with detectives investigating Woodward’s killing out of a desire to “see justice for Blaze.”

Murphy described Atomwaffen as a “far right, radical neo-fascist group,” that unlike some other hate groups was interested in accelerating what they believed was an inevitable collapse of society rather than working within the existing political system. Murphy said the group’s main tenets — outlined in the book “Siege” by prominent neo-Nazi James Mason — included hatred of gay and Jewish people and a desire to do “everything humanly possible to bring chaos into society.”

Members of the group would regularly meet up — gatherings they referred to as “hate camps” — in order to hang out and discuss their ideology, to, among other things, take propaganda photos of the members wearing uniforms and skull masks in front of Nazi or Atomwaffen flags or to go to “left leaning bars” in an attempt to confront other patrons, Murphy said.

“We would wear clothing that had symbols associated with our ideology and we would talk loudly to get reactions out of people,” Murphy explained.

Atomwaffen members would also print out fliers and propaganda for the group and post them around college campuses or synagogues, or other locations where they knew such material would spark a reaction and media coverage.

“That is the goal, to get attention and ultimately spread panic and fear,” Murphy said.

According to both the prosecution and defense, Woodward moved to Texas after being convinced to join Atomwaffen by another member. Woodward’s attorney has described Woodward at times living with the other member in a pickup truck and a shelter and relying on food from a pantry.

Murphy described meeting Woodward in person twice during meetups in Texas. Jurors were shown photos taken at those gatherings, one of which included Woodward wearing a skull mask covering half his face, giving a “Nazi salute.”

Murphy disagreed with a defense description of the “hate camps” as being essentially “camping trips except with Nazis saying horrible things.”

“I don’t think all of us were just saying things,” Murphy replied. “They were deep seated beliefs … and they had the potential to act on them.”

Though it wasn’t mentioned during the courtroom testimony, some of the Atomwaffen members Murphy referenced while on the stand have had their own run-ins with the law.

Brandon Clint Russell, a Florida man who helped found the group, was sentenced to five years in federal prison for possessing an unregistered destructive device and for unlawful storage of explosive material. John Cameron Denton, a Texas man who took over leadership of the group, received more than three years in prison for a swatting conspiracy targeting journalists and members of various minority groups and communities across the United States.

There was no testimony from Murphy regarding Woodward directly speaking about any planned illegal actions. But Murphy said members of Atomwaffen were told not to speak to one another about such potential actions. Woodward and his friend in the group expressed dissatisfaction with Atomwaffen leadership, Murphy added, which they allegedly felt was more focused on dropping off the grid rather than “lone wolf activities.”

Woodward eventually moved back to his parent’s home in Newport Beach.

Murphy described finding himself moving away from Atomwaffen after being deployed in the military and stepping back from their online communications. After Woodward’s death, Murphy testified that he reached out to journalists who had been investigating Atomwaffen, along with people with ties to the Bernstein family who put him in touch with detectives.

“I was destroying my marriage because of my decisions,” Murphy said. ” I was trying to figure out how to get out without seeming suspicious to other members or putting a target behind my back. There was always a conflict inside me between my upbringing and being involved in something like this. I just couldn’t handle it anymore.”

Woodward is accused of killing Bernstein — his former Orange County School of the Arts classmate — while Bernstein was home visiting his parents during a winter break. A variety of forensic evidence — including a knife found in Woodward’s room with blood matched through DNA to Bernstein — helped investigators tie Woodward to the killing.

Other Atomwaffen members looked at Woodward as “some sort of martyr” after Bernstein’s death, Murphy said, and “praised and glorified the killing” during online discussions.

Both the prosecution and defense have described Woodward growing up with conservative, religious parents who were unaccepting of homosexuality.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Walker has previously described a “hate diary” that Woodward allegedly created in which he wrote explicit entries describing matching up with gay men on dating websites and “ghosting” or scaring them.

Assistant Public Defender Ken Morrison has argued that Woodward, who is on the Autism spectrum, was far more conflicted about his sexuality. The defense attorney has shown the jury at-times apparently flirtatious messages between Woodward and Bernstein, details of which Bernstein allegedly shared with other friends despite telling Woodward he would keep it a secret.

Testimony in the trial resumes on Monday, and is expected to last for weeks.

A 25-year-old Santa Ana man pleaded guilty Thursday and was immediately sentenced to 11 years in prison for an alcohol-fueled crash that killed two adults and a 10-year-old girl who were returning from a Bible study meeting in Placentia.

Mario Armando Paz Jr. pleaded guilty to three counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, one count of driving under the influence of alcohol causing injury and one count of DUI with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 or more causing injury, all felonies. He also admitted sentencing enhancements for inflicting great bodily injury on the victims.

According to the criminal complaint, his blood alcohol level was 0.14, nearly twice the legal limit of 0.08. Paz was also accused of running a red light and driving at an unsafe speed, according to the complaint.

The victims who died in the Jan. 25, 2023, crash were 10-year-old Lucero Lopez of Anaheim; the girl’s stepfather, 36-year-old Alberto Vicente Lopez of Anaheim; and 65-year-old Gregoria Ramirez of Placentia, according to Placentia police Sgt. Joe Connell.

Placentia Police Department officers responded at 8:45 p.m. the night of the crash to the intersection of Orangethorpe Avenue and South Melrose Street, where they learned that the driver of a black Honda Civic crashed into the rear of a white van from which a number of people were ejected.

Several other vehicles were involved in the crash, authorities said. As many as eight people suffered injuries ranging from minor to life-threatening, police said.

Three victims were taken to UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange with serious injuries, and two children were rushed to Children’s Hospital Orange County, where Lucero was pronounced dead, police said.

Lopez and Ramirez were pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.

A church employee was driving the victims home in the van from a Bible study group, Connell said.

The consensus box of Santa Anita horse racing picks comes from handicappers Bob Mieszerski, Terry Turrell, Eddie Wilson and Kevin Modesti. Here are the picks for thoroughbred races on Friday, April 19, 2024.

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Scores and stats from Orange County games on Thursday, April 18

Click here for details about sending your team’s scores and stats to the Register.

The deadline for submitting information is 10:45 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 p.m. Saturday.

THURSDAY’S SCORES

SOFTBALL

ORANGE LEAGUE

Anaheim 16, Western 3

Santa Ana Valley 10, Magnolia 0

SUNSET LEAGUE

Los Alamitos 9, Marina 0

CRESTVIEW LEAGUE

Esperanza 12, Villa Park 2

Esp: Ireland 2-3, 4RBI, Page 3-3, 3RBI, Sicard 2-4, 2RBI, Duran (W, 5IP, 10K, 3H, 2R)

NORTH HILLS LEAGUE

Foothill 10, Yorba Linda 0

Foot: Zamarripa 3-4, 2B, 3R, RBI, Rycroft 3-3, 2B, 4RBI, R, Penaloza 2-4, HR, 4RBI, R, Mendez (W, 5IP, 0R, 5H)

EMPIRE LEAGUE

Pacifica 16, Crean Lutheran 1

Kennedy 15, Tustin 0

Cypress 9, Valencia 2

SEA VIEW LEAGUE

Capistrano Valley 10, El Toro 0

SOUTH COAST LEAGUE

Tesoro 7, San Juan Hills 4

Tes: McNamara (W, 5IP, 1ER, 5H, 0BB, 3K), Barley 2-2, 2B, 2R, 3RBI, Cisneros 2-3, 2B, 3RBI

Mission Viejo 9, Aliso Niguel 5

MV: Jepson 3-3, 3R HR, (Uehara W, 2.2 IP, 0R)

AN: Nelson 2 HR, Gajne 3-3, HR, 2B, BB, SB

TRINITY LEAGUE

Rosary 4, Mater Dei 0

Ros: (Phillips W, 6IP, 3K, 5H), Gutierrez 2-4, 3RBI, 2B, Serrano 2-3, BB, Vecchione 2-2, HBP, R, Caldera 2-4

BASEBALL

TRINITY LEAGUE

Orange Lutheran 3, Mater Dei 1

FREEWAY LEAGUE

Sunny Hills 4, Buena Park 2

SAN JOAQUIN LEAGUE

Capistrano Valley Christian 18, The Webb Schools 1

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

Northwood 5, Sage Hill 2

Savanna 6, Big Bear 5

SAN JOAQUIN LEAGUE

Pacifica Christian 3, Western Christian 1

BOYS VOLLEYBALL

EXPRESS LEAGUE

Acaciawood Academy def. Liberty Christian, 25-18, 25-20, 20-25, 26-24

NONLEAGUE

NOVA Academy def. Cristo Rey, 25-19, 25-23, 22-25, 25-17

NA: Cabada 5 kills, 14 assists, 5 aces, Serafin 7 kills, 3 aces, Velazquez 6 kills, 6 aces, Hernandez 5 kills, 3 aces

BOYS TENNIS

TRINITY LEAGUE

Orange Lutheran 10, St. John Bosco 8

Santa Margarita 12, Mater Dei 6

NORTH HILLS LEAGUE

El Dorado 11, Brea Olinda 7

ORANGE COAST LEAGUE

Orange 15, Estancia 3

SOUTH COAST LEAGUE

Tesoro 11, Aliso Niguel 7

WAVE LEAGUE

Fountain Valley 10, Newport Harbor 8

Huntington Beach 13, Laguna Beach 5

GARDEN GROVE LEAGUE

La Quinta 14, Bolsa Grande 4

NONLEAGUE

St. Margaret’s 11, Trabuco Hills 7

GIRLS LACROSSE

SOUTH COAST LEAGUE

San Clemente 20, Trabuco Hills 7

NONLEAGUE

St. Margaret’s 16, Downey 5

BOYS SWIMMING

TRINITY LEAGUE

Santa Margarita 122, Mater Dei 48

200 Medley Relay – SM 1:33.32

200 Freestyle – Hunter Cehelnik (SM) 1:38.88, Carson Eich (SM) 1:44.08

200 IM – Jerry Yan (SM) 1:55.31, Adam Lee (SM) 1:57.49, Darren Nguyen (SM) 1:59.35

50 Freestyle – Ramon Jiang (SM) 21.42, Dean Fujimoto (SM) 22.09, Carson Eich (SM) 22.23

100 Butterfly – Nathan Wu (SM) 52.27, Darren Nguyen (SM) 52.42, Taylor Thongintra (SM) 55.59

100 Freestyle – Daniel Verdolaga (SM) 48.43, Nicholas Lee (SM) 49.39

500 Freestyle – Hunter Cehelnik (SM) 4:37.35, Luke Collins (SM) 4:39.69, Adam Lee (SM) 4:46.54

200 Freestyle Relay – SM 1:26.24

100 Backstroke – Daniel Verdolaga (SM) 51.12, Jerry Yan (SM) 51.69, Nathan Wu (SM) 54.18

100 Breaststroke – Taylor Thongintra (SM) 57.13, William Jung (SM) 58.30, Zachary Zhang (SM) 59.11

400 Freestyle Relay – SM 3:09.02

GIRLS SWIMMING

TRINITY LEAGUE

Mater Dei 107, Santa Margarita 63

200 Medley Relay – SM 1:51.02

200 Freestyle – Hannah Campbell (SM) 1:55.40, Kenna Stinson (SM) 2:00.21

200 IM – Sophia Zhu (SM) 2:11.64, Makenna Wilson (SM) 2:16.20, Gracyn Aquino (SM) 2:18.62

50 Freestyle – Audrey Lee (SM) 24.94

100 Butterfly – Gracyn Aquino (SM) 59.85, Makenna Wilson (SM) 1:02.22

100 Freestyle – Audrey Lee (SM) 55.09, Chloe Stinson (SM) 55.20

500 Freestyle – Hannah Campbell (SM) 5:08.24, Nicole Christensen (SM) 5:11.68, Sammy Cummins (SM) 5:17.40

200 Freestyle Relay – SM 1:40.73

100 Backstroke – Sammy Cummins (SM) 59.66, Nicole Christensen (SM) 1:00.36, Eileen Song (SM) 1:02.96

100 Breaststroke – Eileen Song (SM) 1:06.80, Sophia Zhu (SM) 1:07.48

400 Freestyle Relay – SM 3:43.64

BOYS GOLF

TRINITY LEAGUE

Servite 182, Mater Dei 202

Western Hills CC (par 35)

SURF LEAGUE

Corona del Mar 185, Los Alamitos 204

Old Ranch CC

ORANGE COAST LEAGUE

St. Margaret’s 170, Orange 279

Riverview GC

NORTH HILLS

El Dorado 171, Brea Olinda 179

Brea Creek GC

FREEWAY LEAGUE

Fullerton 177, Sonora 197

Fullerton GC

605 LEAGUE

Whitney 201, Oxford Academy 246

LOS ANGELES — Eric Gentry will never forget the number 116, because it has been weaponized around USC, a painful trigger pressed over and over and over again as a reminder of the season that was lost.

116. It comes after every defensive workout, one additional set of repetitions, as Gentry described after USC’s final spring practice on Thursday. One more rep for every rung USC dropped in total-defense rankings in 2023. 116 reps. 116th in yards-per-game allowed. A cardinal-red stain on the back of the returning Trojans’ jerseys, the reminder glistening in every drop of sweat.

“If you don’t feel like you got (something) to prove here,” Gentry said Thursday, “you shouldn’t be here, really.”

Not exactly a novel idea, the notion that the holdovers on this USC defense would be motivated by the mess that was 2023, the midseason demise of coordinator Alex Grinch and any sort of championship hopes quickly derailed. But many of those individuals, simply, don’t just have something to prove – they have no choice but to prove it, time ticking on next-level hopes and collegiate dreams as stocks have dropped.

And few have more left to prove than Anthony Lucas.

The former five-star defensive lineman came to USC via the transfer portal in January 2023, seeking a fresh start and a clean slate, after a quiet freshman season that ended in embarrassment at Texas A&M: a suspension due to a locker room incident after a loss. He left an immediate impression, impossible to overlook his 6-foot-5, 295-pound frame; he started off the edge in USC’s first game of the fall against San Jose State, recording 37 snaps.

By their final regular-season game against UCLA, Lucas earned all of two snaps, finishing the season with seven tackles, nine pressures and not a single sack.

“I mean, it wasn’t really good,” Lucas said Thursday, when asked how he would assess his performance last season. “So I mean, I gotta get back to the drawing board and get back to it.”

What were specific things he identified to work on?

“Everything.”

It was perfectly simple, Lucas generally a man of few words with reporters. It was also everything that needed to be said. And instead of continuing to fade in USC’s defensive line plans under new coach Eric Henderson’s regime, Lucas has been one of the most hotly-buzzed names of spring camp, bulked up and making an instant impact to coaches and teammates alike.

“He’s much more consistent,” head coach Lincoln Riley said Tuesday. “It’s not just like a flash play here and there. I think he’s one of the guys that have really taken to the new scheme, the new style up front – it’s really fit what he needed to become as a player. … I think he’s growing up, and I think the scheme and the coaching fit have been very positive for him.”

It was readily easily to forget, under his imposing build, that Lucas was still a fairly inexperienced sophomore last season, which defensive ends coach Shaun Nua pointed to as the reason for his struggles last year. After slimming to 265 pounds as part of USC’s defense last year, Lucas is back up to 275, a mass he said Thursday has allowed him to move faster and with more confidence.

And on a revamped defensive front with an emphasis on versatility – which the returning Nua called “a different way of doing things” – Lucas had stood out, a lineman who has been working both inside and on the edge.

“We might have four fast guys in there, or four big guys in there,” Nua said last week. “So it’s a very versatile defense, and that’s the beauty about it.”

Under Nua and Henderson, USC has assembled a stockpile of malleable, stocky defensive linemen, from Vanderbilt transfer Nate Clifton to 6-6 freshman Kameryn Fountain, who Nua said had “all the talent in the world.” But after Texas A&M transfer Isaiah Raikes hit the portal again in a matter of months, Lucas’ continued development has only become more important, Nua singling out the junior as the most versatile piece of USC’s defensive line.

“I think Ant, especially, is becoming more focused, even more,” Gentry said. “He didn’t have a lot of opportunities that he felt – to display himself last year, or the snap count fell off.”

“So he feel like he got a lot to prove.”

MISSION VIEJO — Mission Viejo’s softball team continued to conjure memories of its magical 2022 season Thursday while competing in another intense South Coast League game.

The Diablos scored all their runs with two outs and overcame four home runs by Aliso Niguel to collect a 9-5 victory at Mission Viejo High.

Mission Viejo (18-5-1, 6-1), ranked 12th in Orange County, scored four runs with two outs in the sixth inning to snap a 5-5 tie and remain a half-game ahead of Tesoro (13-3-1, 5-1) in league.

“It’s kind of going back to our 2022 season,” said Diablos coach Clint Watson, who guided his team to the CIF-SS Division 2 title that spring. “It’s just fight. The will to win, the why-not-us-type of attitude. There was a lot of energy today.”

Mission Viejo, ranked fifth in Division 2, took a 6-5 lead on a two-out single up the middle by Kara King, its No. 9 batter.

Leadoff batter Ava Tabangcura followed with a RBI infield single and Mars Ruvalcaba singled two more runs to cap the scoring in the sixth.

Mission Viejo scored the four runs after Aliso Niguel center fielder Gigi Ganje robbed a home run with a grab over the fence earlier in the sixth.

“We answered,” Watson said. “We literally preached (two-out hitting) for 45 minutes yesterday toward the end of our hitting (in practice).”

Mission Viejo freshman Kylee Jepson sparked the clutch hitting with a two-out, three-run home run to opposite field for a 3-2 lead in the second. She finished 3 for 3.

Ganje, a Penn commit, hit one of the Wolverines’ four home runs and finished 3 for 3 with a walk. She launched a two-run home run to tie the score 5-5 with one out in the fifth.

Leadoff batter and Stanford commit Taylor Nelson hit two home runs and catcher Tessa Cowsill added one for the No. 13 Wolverines (13-5-1, 4-2).

“You always know on a big game, those three are going to bring their best,” Aliso Niguel coach Randie Baldwin said. “We’re not out of it (in league) by any means.”

Mission Viejo turned to Reece Uehara to quiet the Wolverines’ powerful bats. The junior committed to Princeton responded by pitching 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief of starter Sofia Elliott to earn the win.

“We got each other’s back,” Uehara said. “As a relief pitcher, you just got to put out the fire the best you can. That’s what I tried to do.”

“We have a lot of seniors graduating,” she added. “Everyone just wants to give them the best final year.”

ORANGE — The Canyon softball team was ahead by two runs in the seventh inning and an out away from victory in a key Crestview League game against El Modena on Thursday at El Modena High School.

Then, with the bases empty, the Vanguards put together a two-run rally that tied the score and sent the contest to extra innings.

But the Comanches kept their composure and scored four runs in the ninth inning to earn a 6-2 victory.

“First, I think we respect (our opponent) every time we get on a field, especially in our league,” Canyon coach Jess Carbajal said. “We never take it for granted that we’re winning. So, we knew, and the girls prepared for a tough game.”

Jade Diaz drove in the winning run for Canyon in the ninth, but was injured one play later when sliding head first into home to score the Comanches’ fourth run of the inning.

After a 20-minute delay, Diaz was taken to the hospital by ambulance.

The victory is the fifth in a row for the Comanches (21-4, 6-1), who are in first place, one game ahead of second-place Esperanza (5-2 in league) in the four-team league. Esperanza beat Villa Park 12-2 Thursday.

Canyon, ranked No. 3 in the Orange County Top 25, takes on the No. 9 Aztecs on Tuesday with first place on the line.

The teams split their first two league games.

“Now I can talk about going on to Esperanza and we’ll be prepared for that one too,” Carbajal said.

No. 4 El Modena (17-8, 3-4) remains in third place with two league games remaining. Only the top two teams in a four-team league receive automatic playoff berths, and the Vanguards might need an at-large berth to get into the CIF-SS playoffs.

Ava Espinoza doubled to lead off the seventh for the Vanguards and then scored on Kaitlyn Galasso’s double to get El Modena within one run.

Jocelyn Alatorre then singled home Galasso one batter later and the game went to extra innings.

After a scoreless eighth, the Comanches broke the game open with a four-run ninth.

Carson Cooper led off with a walk and after Bella Alcala went in as a pinch runner, Diaz doubled into the gap in left-center field, scoring Alcala to put the Comanches ahead 3-2.

Irma Urincho then doubled to right-center to score Diaz, who was injured on a close play at the plate.

“I think that the big thing that we did was pass the bat,” Urincho said. “One hit and then another hit and it just kept going. Taking Jade’s injury, we just all said we’re going to come together even more than we were and just keep passing bats and keep fighting as a team.”

The Comanches tacked on two more runs, one coming on an RBI single from Kendall Nevin.

“My hat goes off to (El Modena coach) Bobby (Calderon) for fighting back,” Carbajal said. “But I wouldn’t have expected anything less.”

By MARK ANDERSON AP Sports Writer

LAS VEGAS — Frank Vatrano scored three goals and the Ducks ended their season on a high note, defeating the Vegas Golden Knights, 4-1, on Thursday night.

The loss knocked the Knights – whose three-game winning streak ended – out of third place in the Pacific Division and into the second Western Conference wild card. Vegas was leapfrogged by the Kings, who rallied to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-4 in overtime.

Vatrano’s goals gave him a career-high 37 for the season. It was his third hat trick this season and the sixth of his career.

Jackson LaCombe had a goal and an assist for the Ducks, who finished 27-50-5 for 59 points. Ryan Strome had two assists and Lukas Dostal made 29 saves. Cutter Gauthier had an assist in his first career game.

Ducks forward Jakob Silfverberg, who played his final NHL game after 12 seasons in the league, shook hands with Golden Knights players after the game.

Jack Eichel scored his 31st goal for the Knights, and Adin Hill made 19 stops.

William Karlsson’s second-period assist for Vegas gave him 60 points this season, the second time he’s reached the mark. He had 78 points in the 2017-18 season.

Karlsson remains the club’s single-season goals leader at 43, with Jonathan Marchessault coming one short despite 13 shots against the Ducks, including seven on goal. Marchessault scored only one goal in his final seven games.

The Knights made a concerted effort to get Marchessault the record, sometimes feeding him the puck when there were better options. He had nine shots in the first period alone, four on goal to match the Ducks’ first-period total. Four other shots were blocked and one missed the net.

After a scoreless first period in which the Ducks didn’t take its first shot on goal until the 10-minute mark, both teams traded power-play goals in the second. Vatrano scored at 4:25 and Eichel at 18:47. That was Vegas’ ninth power-play goal this month, tying Calgary for most in the NHL.

LaCombe and Vatrano scored 29 seconds apart early in the third period to give the Ducks the lead for good. Vatrano’s final goal came with 15 seconds left on an empty-netter with the Knights on a 6-on-4 power play.

Ducks defenseman William Lagesson skated in his 100th career game.

More to come on this story.