Trophy to cement Castle Park-Chula Vista girls lacrosse rivalry

The Battle of the Greek Goddesses trophy will now symbolize the neighborhood rivalry between Castle Park High School and Chula Vista High School in girls lacrosse.

Castle Park and Chula Vista high schools have enjoyed a long rivalry on the west side of town. Chula Vista High School was founded in 1946 while Castle Park was established in 1962.

The schools have been neighborhood rivals since the latter opened its doors.

But the schools have only been rivals in the sport of girls lacrosse for a short period of time. This season marks the third year that Castle Park has fielded a team in a second attempt at offering the sport to student-athletes on campus.

The Trojan program has steadily gained momentum in its most recent incarnation, winning two games last season after finishing 0-17 in 2016.

Castle Park coach Chris Kryjewski decided to cement the schools’ west side rivalry with a trophy. The idea behind the establishment of a rivalry game, he said, is to build a winning culture within the program.

“This old school rivalry goes way back when the two schools opened and deserves a girls rivalry trophy,” Kryjewski said.

Victorious Chula Vista players pose with the championship trophy after winning the inaugural Battle of the Greek Goddesses rivalry game on March 15. Photo by Phillip Brents

Castle Park High School hosted the inaugural trophy game on Thursday, March 15. Visiting Chula Vista won 17-4.

Following the game, the trophy was presented to Spartan coach Diana Carrillo. Chula Vista’s Alexandra Hawkins, who led all players on the field with five goals, received the most valuable player award.

The rivalry game trophy is sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Chula Vista. The Spartans received $300 as the winning team while Castle Park received $200 as the runner-up team.

Chula Vista’s Alexandra Hawkins, left, poses with her MVP award with Spartan coach Diana Carrillo, who holds the Battle of the Greek Goddesses rivalry game trophy. Photo by Phillip Brents

Hawkins was proud to receive the MVP award.

“I’ve worked really hard at lacrosse,” she said. “It isn’t a sport, it’s a lifestyle for me. The game went really well. Hopefully this trophy game will bring our schools more together.”

Three other Chula Vista players scored four goals each: Litzy Tamariez, Melissa Herrera and Priscilla Betancourt.

The Spartans wasted little time in taking the lead and expanding on it. Chula Vista scored just 45 seconds into the game and led 12-1 at halftime.

Emily Martinez led the Trojans with two goals; Breana Mireles and Giselle Ochoa each scored one goal.

Players battle for possession of the ball in Thursday’s girls lacrosse match at Castle Park High School. Photo by Phillip Brents

Castle Park was coming off a 16-3 win over visiting San Ysidro on Monday, March 12. The Trojans opened the season with a 12-5 loss to visiting Mar Vista on March 8 and received a forfeit win over Lincoln last Friday, March 9.

Chula Vista opened the season with a 1-0 win over visiting Lincoln on Feb. 27. The Spartans have since dropped matchups against Eastlake (15-2 on Feb. 28), Helix (17-3 on March 5), Mar Vista (7-6 on March 7) and Granite Hills (21-2 on Monday).

Kryjewski said the strength of this year’s CP team will be the chemistry the players have built with each other over the past three seasons. The majority of the team, he noted, has been together since bringing back the program in 2016.

Impact players include Martinez (attacker), Mireles (attacker/midfielder), Allison Velasco (midfielder), Ochoa (midfielder), defenders Joseline Sandoval and Eryka Rivera and midfielder/attacker Celeste Preciado

Newcomers include defender Andrea Parra and defender Carmen Camacho.

“Our goals and expectations this season of course is to compete in the new league of the Metro-South Bay,” Kryjewski said. “Our goals are to win as many games as we can and increase our scoring goal totals … also to shrink our goals allowed to half of what we gave up last season.

“The success of this season will be competitiveness the kids will bring with the great coaching staff that is in place. Of course, I could not do this without the great assistant coaches I have in the program with coach Paul Cooper and coach Nick De La Cruz.”

Castle Park and Chula Vista are members of the newly launched South Bay League along with Southwest, Montgomery and Olympian.

Players battle for possession of the ball in Thursday’s South Bay League girls lacrosse game at Castle Park High School. Photo by Phillip Brents

Season face-off
Eastlake is off to a 2-0 season start after edging visiting Rancho Bernardo, 10-9, in overtime on Monday.

Eastlake rallied to tie the game and send it into overtime against the North County powerhouse with two late goals.

Trailing 9-7, EHS captain Janelle Fortuno scored a goal to cut the Bronco lead to only one. Then, with 57 seconds remaining in the game, Yuleni Zendejas scored from eight meters to tie the score, 9-9, and send the game into overtime.

At 1:48 of overtime, Titan captain Kika Funk took the game in hand by winning the draw and scoring the game-winning goal.

Funk finished the game with four goals, while Katie Carroll had two goals and Cori Montero had one goal.

Eastlake is scheduled to host Hilltop in its next game on Thursday, March 15, at 6:30 p.m. A junior varsity game is scheduled at 5 p.m. There is free admission.

Hilltop opened the season with a 16-6 loss to visiting Granite Hills on March 5.

Mar Vista is 3-2 on the season following wins over San Ysidro (15-0 on March 5) and Chula Vista. The Mariners have dropped non-league matchups to Monte Vista (5-2 on March 1) and Mira Mesa (7-6 on Tuesday, March 13).

Bonita Vista (0-4) will host Otay Ranch (2-0) on Thursday, March 15, at 3 p.m.

Otay Ranch posted a pair of wins over Point Loma to start the season — 10-2 at Point Loma on March 2 and 8-3 at Otay Ranch last Friday.