Mission Viejo's Girls Edge Tesoro, 7-6

When Mission Viejo gave up three consecutive goals in the final 1:34 of the first half to trail by one, Megan Armes was laying on the sidelines, suffering from a sudden bout of dehydration, when she had one thought.

“I was thinking how cool would it be to come back and score the game-winning goal in my last game of my senior year,” said the blonde, petite but muscular leader of the seventh-ranked Diablos girls lacrosse team. “It was completely unexpected.”

Well, dreams sometimes do come true.

Armes picked herself up and played the entire second half, scoring the final goal with 34.6 seconds left in regulation to carry Mission Viejo to a thrilling 7-6 triumph over eighth-ranked Tesoro, Thursday afternoon at Tesoro High.

The Diablos (12-4, 7-3) will finish second in the South Coast League behind league champion and sixth-ranked El Toro. Thursday's victory gives them a split with the Titans (11-6, 6-4), who won, 8-6, one month ago.

“This went exactly as I expected. What a game!” enthused Renate Schmidt, who completed her fifth regular season as the Diablos coach. “Both teams’ players left everything they had on the field. Tesoro played hard, but we pulled it off.”

Mission Viejo has Armes to thank for that.

The Diablos were controlling the ball and the game, 3-1, with four minutes left in the first half when Armes was forced off the field with pains in her side and legs because of dehydration, Schmidt said. While Armes was stretching with the assistance of a trainer and getting re-hydrated, the Titans roared back with goals by seniors Courtney Brown, Ashley Leggett and Lauren Huerta -- three of the 14 seniors who were honored by Tesoro before the game on Senior Night -- to take a 4-3 lead with 18.6 left in the half.

During the seven-minute halftime, Armes said she began feeling better, and by the start of the second half she was ready to go. And was she! Only 2½ minutes in, Armes drove the middle and was hit hard to the ground by Leggett. Armes took the free position shot in front of Titans goalie Alex Potts and netted a goal to tie the score. After Tesoro tied the score on a goal by Brown, Armes took the ball off the draw and ran half the field to score and tie it up again.

With 13:55 remaining, the Titans took the lead for the fourth time on Brown’s hat-trick goal past Diablos goalie Sarah Wetzell (four saves), and then began playing Armes tighter and making big plays on defense to deny the Diablos. Finally, with 2:44 left, sophomore Samantha Keary scored the tying goal, but 30 seconds later, Brittney Barron was yellow-carded for a dangerous chop, leaving the Diablos shorthanded.

But Armes immediately stole the pass and moved the ball downfield. With 1:00 left, Armes called for the ball behind the net and got the pass as she went one-on-one with Brown. Armes wove her way to the middle and went between four Titan players and Potts to score her game-winning goal on a bouncing shot.

“I told the girls during our last timeout that we needed two goals, and we were able to do that in two of our last five possessions,” Schmidt said. “They executed our game plan perfectly. But you could see what happened when Megan went out. She means so much to our team. She came up big when we needed it.”

Mikaela Berger scored two goals a minute apart in the first half for the Diablos. Potts finished with seven saves for the Titans.