BREAKERS ROUNDUP: Breakers can’t pass big early season test

In a match-up between two top-rated teams in the CIF Southern Section Division III poll, No. 1 Montebello came away with a 6-4 victory over host and fourth-ranked Laguna on Tuesday.

Nolan McConnel topped Laguna in scoring with two goals. Victor Alcone and David Brunner each scored once. McConnel and Brunner each also had an assist.

Defensively, Robert Chew had three steals, Brett Thompson two steals and Alcone and Preston Head each had one steal.

Laguna is currently playing in the South Coast Tournament, hosted by Newport Harbor. The tournament began Thursday, continues today and concludes Saturday.

? Girls’ Golf

Laguna Beach successfully began defense Tuesday of its Golden West League title.

The Breakers began their league season at Mesa Linda Golf Course (par 36) and came away with a 244-318 victory over host Costa Mesa. Laguna’s Karina Shaw was the medalist with a score of 42. Freshman Taylor Weiss shot a personal best of 47 with 15 putts.

“I’m really happy that we got the league season off to a great start,” said Breakers Coach Val Quigley, whose team improved to 2-3. “The girls are looking good.”

In previous nonleague action last week, Laguna lost to Aliso Niguel, 208-235 at Aliso Creek Golf Course (par 32) and defeated Sage Hills, 254-259, at Rancho San Joaquin Golf Course (par 36). Grace Komoroczy was the medalist with a 38 in the win over Sage Hill, which was Laguna’s first of the year.

“Grace Komoroczy and Karina Shaw are playing well right now, with both of them scoring in the high 30s or low 40s in our matches,” Quigley said.

? Cross-Country

On the boys’ side, Laguna captured first place in both the varsity boys’ and open boys’ races at the Iolani Invitational Saturday on the island of Oahu, Hawaii.

In the varsity race, senior Casey Finnerty ran a 16 minutes 15 seconds to place second overall. Sophomore Matt Neev went 16:17 to take third, junior Tommy Newton-Neal (16:33) took fourth and junior Blake Hofmeister finished fifth in 16:38.

Junior Andrew Shapero won the open boys’ race in 17:03, one second ahead of teammate Alex Young.

Laguna won the open race with a perfect score of 15 points and took the top six places in a field of more than 200 runners.

“Hawaii was fantastic,” Laguna Coach Dave Brobeck said. “It was the best travel trip I have ever been a part of. We had fun from beginning to end and basically saw all of Oahu in 72 hours.

“The race was a giant success, as well. It was massively successful. We never stopped having a good time.”

Laguna’s girls’ team ran to an eighth-place finish out of 33 teams Saturday at the Woodbridge Invitational. The Breakers had a team time of 1:40:40.

Junior Parker Yamasaki was Laguna’s top finisher with a time of 19:55. Two other juniors, Kativa Strickland and McKenna Nokes, were neck-and-neck, finishing in times of 20:04 and 20:06, respectively, while freshman Natasha Strickland was a second behind Nokes at 20:07.

“Our varsity ran really well coming off a bit of mileage,” Laguna Coach Steve Lalim said. “Our gap from our first runner to our sixth was 33 seconds. We are a very tight pack.

? Girls’ Volleyball

A tough two-game swing awaits Laguna. On Tuesday, the Breakers begin a week of games that first has them hosting Newport Harbor at 5:30 p.m. Two days later, they go to Manhattan Beach to square off against Mira Costa.

Mira Costa is ranked No. 1 in CIF Division I-AA and Newport Harbor comes in at No. 6 in the same poll.

“If you want to be the best, you have to play the best,” Laguna Coach Lance Stewart said. “Those are two of the top programs around. We will need to serve well, be disciplined and stay on top of our game just to say with both of them.”

At last weekend’s Dave Mohs Tournament in Huntington Beach, Laguna came out in second place in its pool and then lost a first-round Gold Division playoff game to Corona del Mar, falling 9-25, 26-24, 14-16.