Huntington Beach boys’ lacrosse keeps playoff hopes alive with win over Edison

The Huntington Beach High boys’ lacrosse team had plenty of reasons to be motivated for Friday night’s Sunset League game against visiting Edison.

On senior night, the Oilers honored their large 14-player senior class prior to the game, and those players definitely wanted to have a good showing. Additionally, Huntington Beach needed a win to keep alive its hopes of advancing to the U.S. Lacrosse Southern Section South Division playoffs.

Huntington Beach certainly played like the game was meaningful, earning a 12-3 victory that was the Oilers’ second over the Chargers in four days.

The score was nearly the same as Tuesday, when Huntington Beach won 12-4 at Edison. The Oilers (7-6, 3-4 in league) stayed in third place in league, ahead of fourth-place Edison (4-9, 1-5).

A league title is out of the question entering the final week of the regular season, but Huntington Beach wants to make the playoffs. The Oilers are ranked No. 17 in an Orange County coaches’ poll; the top 16 teams in the county will advance to the postseason.

“We had five games left before the first Edison game, and I made it clear we’ve got to go 5-0 in this last stretch if we want to get into the playoffs,” Huntington Beach coach Michael Lacy said. “The rankings aren’t in our favor right now, but at the end of the day, we can’t complain about it. We’ve got to actually put [results] on the board.”

The Oilers did so against the Chargers, led by senior Tyler Alexander and his four goals. Fellow seniors Michael Goodhart and Timmy Benson scored two goals each, while Jacob Chance, PJ Clynes, Donnie Schulte and Harry Dean also scored.

Schulte had carried the load with seven goals in Tuesday’s win. This time, the Oilers were more balanced. They were also solid defensively, with senior goalie Grady Mercier making 15 saves. Lacy said senior defender Dylan Werlinger is also a key player, as he leads the team in caused turnovers and ground balls this season.

“[Mercier] is great,” Edison coach Dieter Nemes said. “We had as many shots as they had in both games. It’s not like we’re lacking for shots, we’re just lacking for goals. But you can see, they had [14] seniors on their senior night, and we had three [A.J. McLean, Desi Perdomo and Evan Welman]. We’re looking forward to next year, hopefully.”

The first of two goals by junior Drake Choi brought Edison within 2-1 with 4:31 remaining in the first quarter, but Huntington Beach scored five straight goals to end the half with a 7-1 advantage.

Mercier said team camaraderie has been key.

“Toward the beginning of the season, we would just bag on each other if something happened,” Mercier said. “But now we’ve realized that doesn’t work. Tonight and Tuesday, it showed that being supportive is really a big game-changer.”

Gavin Pace also scored for Edison, while goalie Hunter Whalen made 12 saves.

Huntington Beach closes out league play at last-place Marina on Monday at 6 p.m., then it hosts Capistrano Valley on Wednesday before closing out the regular season at Yorba Linda on April 27.

That last game could be a big one in terms of making the playoffs; Yorba Linda is ranked No. 8 in the county.

“Yorba Linda got the edge on us last year by quite a bit of goals [14-7] right here on this own field, so I know [our] seniors are very hungry,” Lacy said. “They understand it could potentially be their last game of their senior year, if we don’t get into playoffs.”

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo