The OC players include attack Peyton Garrett from San Clemente and midfielder Hayden Ruiz from Santa Margarita Catholic. The San Diego players include three from Bishop’s — attack Andrew Tien and Connor McCroskey, as well as midfielder Jake Seau — in addition to midfielder Michael Kay from Cathedral Catholic and face-off specialist Owen Weselak from Torrey Pines, the 2013 CIF San Diego champion. Weselak’s high school coach, Jono Zizzi, will act as one of the coaches for the team.

The West squad is one of 10 boys underclassmen teams — the others being Baltimore, Long Island, Midwest, New England, New Jersey, Philadelphia, South, Upstate New York and Washington, D.C — that will compete July 5-7 at Towson University in Baltimore. Ten girls teams from the same regions will compete, as well. On the girls side, San Diego players dominate the roster with 10 players out of 25 on the roster. Rosters for each Underclass team can be found here.

In addition to the Underclass Games, Under-Armour is also hosting the Underclass Uncommitted Games, which will feature uncommitted players who did not make the regional teams. The weekend culminates in the 2013 Under Armour All-American Game, featuring the 44 best senior boys and girls in the country. Goalie Emily Kift of Foothill (Santa Ana) is the only Southern California player on either roster for the senior game.

Torrey Pines celebrates its 2013 San Diego championship. (Photo courtesy of @torreypineslax)

This marked the first season that the top teams in the San Diego Section conducted playoffs in what was called the Open Division. Under this system, eight teams received Open Division playoff bids based on their history of success over the past few seasons, regardless of school enrollment. The previous system categorized teams as Division I and Division II for the playoffs based on school size. Teams that were not among those top eight but still had playoff-caliber seasons received bids into separate brackets using the school-size system, with 12 teams in each division.

In the Open Division, Torrey Pines was the No. 1-seed and La Costa Canyon was No. 2, a reversal of seeding from last year’s Division I playoffs. Last year’s Division II champion and runner-up – Coronado and Bishop’s, respectively – also participated in the Open Division.

In Division I, Westview (20-3) defeated Carlsbad (11-9) 8-3 in the title game. In Division II, Francis Parker (9-8) defeated Del Norte (7-12) 12-4.

This was Torrey Pines’ sixth championship in the 12 years that lacrosse has been a CIF-sanctioned sport in San Diego. La Costa Canyon has five titles in the CIF era.

The Open Division final can be seen in its entirety on The Lacrosse Network.

Sophomore Ryan Harnisch’s faceoff abilities enabled St. Margaret’s to control possession.

Harnisch, already committed to play lacrosse at the University of Denver, was a big part of the Tartans’ playoff wins over Corona del Mar for the O.C. title and Harvard Westlake for the US Lacrosse CIF Southern Section championship.

Senior Alex Waller paced the St. Margaret’s offense from his attack spot.

Senior attack Alex Waller, junior middie Hunter Eddington, senior defender Brandon Suchand and senior LSM Scott McGowan also made the Register’s All-County first team.

O.C. runner-up Corona del Mar placed three players on the first team — senior attacks Casey Mix and Jack Ortlieb and senior middie Brett Nelson. JSerr and Foothill each had two representatives on the first team, and Huntington Beach had one.

The full list can be found at OCVarsity.com, along with short write-ups on the first-team selections and features on Harnisch and Coach Miles.

Thacher’s JJ Ntshaykolo, who is headed to Brown next fall, will play for the North.

SOUTHLAND PLAYERS ON THE NORTH ROSTER
• Blake Hobel, LSM, Esperanza HS (Anaheim), Colorado Mesa (D-II)
• Scott McGowan, LSM, St. Margaret’s (Mission Viejo), Denver (D-I)
• JJ Ntshaykolo, LSM, Thacher School (Ojai), Brown (D-I)

Scott McGowan of CIF Southern Section champ St. Margaret’s is headed to Denver next fall.

SOUTHLAND PLAYERS ON THE SOUTH ROSTER
• Troy Brown, M, Foothill (Tustin), Salisbury (D-III)
• Jake Douglass, M, Tesoro (Las Flores), Air Force (D-I)
• Chris Groel, D, Palisades Charter (Pacific Palisades), Rutgers (D-I)
• Jack Ortlieb, A, Corona del Mar (Newport Beach), Holy Cross (D-I)
• Cole Schleppy, M, JSerra (San Juan Capistrano), Providence (D-I)

A year ago, Rutgers-bound Chris Groel helped Palisades reach the L.A. County title game.

The annual event will feature 45 players bound for NCAA D-I schools and five heading to NCAA D-II or D-III programs. The players hail from nine states and one province: Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Texas, Minnesota, Nevada, and British Columbia. Complete rosters are available here.

A young Harvard Westlake team led St. Margaret’s 5-2 at halftime behind players like sophomore attack Roman Holthouse.

Foothill won the first five north-south championship matchups, from 2007 through 2011 before CdM won last year and St. Margaret’s this year. The north has been represented in those title games by Palos Verdes (three times), Mira Costa (twice), Loyola and now Harvard Westlake.

So when will the north bracket break through? It’s always tough to answer hypotheticals like that, so I decided to look at it a couple of different ways, trying to get some sort of handle on the overall quality of lacrosse being played in the north, as well as the depth of talent and the development of complete teams, not just one-year wonders.

That last point is important, I think, because in the time I’ve been watching high school lacrosse in the L.A. area, I’ve see a bunch of teams win plenty of games and advance deep into the playoffs while leaning on just a couple of players. In fact, one coach told me that when he took over as head coach at his high school, he was advised by a colleague to simply identify his one or two best players, get them the ball and let them go one-on-one. That’s how you win games around here, the other coach said.

But that’s not how you play lacrosse.

And it’s certainly not how you’re going to beat teams like St. Margaret’s or Corona del Mar or Foothill or JSerra or any of a number of other teams who can move the ball, get offense from multiple contributors and defensively can shut off your one weapon.

But I think it’s also important to note that the advice mentioned above came a few years ago, and that’s a long time in the development of the game in an area with great athletes. Perhaps that philosophy worked at one time, but now teams are posting rosters with kids who have been playing at a high level these last three years (and more), kids who have been working on their games year-round. Top to bottom, high school rosters are deeper and more talented than they were just a few years ago.

So how good is L.A. compared to Orange County? One source of comparison is the LaxPower.com ratings. Orange County teams dominate the top 10, holding seven spots in the final 2013 rankings. But expand that to the top 20, and the O.C. holds only nine of 20 spots. Top 30? The south holds 13 of 30 spots. There are more top 30 teams from the north bracket — L.A. and Ventura counties — than from Orange County.

Three years ago, the 2010 final rankings also had seven O.C. teams in the top 10, along with 12 of the top 20 and 16 of the top 30.

So there’s some progress. Three years ago, Orange County dominated the Lax Power ratings. While teams from the south still have a hold on the top 10, L.A. teams hold 14 of the 20 spots between 11 and 30.

How about head-to-head matchups? A couple of teams ventured out of their region this season. Here are some cross-county results:

• Feb. 27: Foothill 8, Oak Park 2 in Anaheim
• March 2: St. Margaret’s 9, Oak Park 8 at St. Margaret’s
• March 6: San Clemente 20, Oak Park 4 in Anaheim
• March 19: Palos Verdes 9, at Santa Margarita Catholic 8
• April 13: Corona del Mar 11, at Thousand Oaks 4
• April 20: Agoura 13, at San Clemente 12, OT
• May 11: St. Margaret’s 15, Harvard Westlake 8 at West Torrance HS

There might have been others, but those stand out as examples of top-rated teams from each county squaring off. The O.C. won five of the seven matchups, and the two losses were by one goal each, one of them in overtime. So perhaps its fair to say that the best of the O.C. still are a step ahead of the best from the north.

But take note: Oak Park made three trips from Ventura County to the O.C. in a span of eight days to face teams that eventually finished in the top 10 in the LaxPower ratings. They lost all three, but don’t believe for a minute that scheduling like that won’t help close the gap between the two halves of the Southern Section bracket.

So when will an L.A. team break through? It might not be next year, but it’s coming. Harvard Westlake was a young squad this year, listing only seven seniors on a published roster of 33 players. Palos Verdes loses a couple of excellent seniors to graduation, but the Sea Kings started three freshmen and return half their roster. Oak Park also was very young, listing seven seniors on a roster of 29 and expected to return its top six scorers.

It will be fun to see if one of those teams — or someone like Crespi or Loyola, or Westlake, Agoura or Newbury Park — can field a team with enough depth, talent and experience to be the first L.A. champ to win it all.

When we previewed the division finals, we weren’t sure if No. 6 Harvard-Westlake could continue its run through the North against No. 1 Palos Verdes. However, the Wolverines pulled out a 9-7 victory in a game that was close throughout. Southland Lax was there to take in the game, and a full photo album can be found on our Facebook page.

To reach the final, Harvard Westlake beat the Nos. 3, 2 and 1 seeds in succession. The Wolverines played aggressively and without regard to who was favored — they just made plays. Ultimately, they made more than Palos Verdes, which seemed to lack a sense of urgency until the fourth quarter, when Harvard Westlake took the lead and it became clear the Wolverines were not going away. By the time PV tried to turn it on, though, Harvard Westlake was in control.

In the South, No. 1 Corona del Mar faced No. 3 St. Margaret’s in a rematch of a regular season game that SMES pulled out in overtime. The Tartans were the only Southern California team to have beaten CdM this season, and through dominating face-off play by OC Player of the Year Ryan Harnisch, SMES took down the defending champion Sea Kings by a score of 12-7.

Each Tartan attackmen, including senior Alex Waller, had four points for SMES in the Southern Section final.

Going into the final game, only one thing was certain: A new champion would emerge in the Southern Section. St. Margaret’s started strong with an early 2-0 lead, but Harvard-Westlake junior midfielder Jack Temko led a five goal run to give the Wolverines a 5-2 halftime lead.

The second half was all SMES, though, as the Tartans scored the first three goals of the third to tie the game en route to 13 second-half tallies and a 15-8 win. SMES had a balanced effort, with each attackman scoring four points each, another strong performance by FOGO Ryan Harnisch, and a breakout performance by junior midfielder Hunter Eddington (6g, 1a).

In the end, Harvard-Westlake’s brilliant playoff run came up short, and the Southern Section crown remained in Orange County. St. Margaret’s 19th-consecutive win marked the seventh consecutive championship for an OC team.

Check out a full photo album of the Southern Section final here.

North Final
No. 6 Harvard Westlake vs. No. 1 Palos Verdes
Wednesday, 7 p.m., West Torrance HS

The Wolverines (14-3) knocked off two higher-seeded teams from the Marmonte League on the road to reach the final, winning 16-8 at Agoura on Thursday and 11-10 in OT at Westlake on Saturday. Harvard Westlake’s three losses all came to playoff teams — Oak Park 13-11 in early March and Mission League opponents Loyola, 8-4, and Crespi, 15-7, down the stretch of the regular season.

Offensively, the Wolverines don’t seem to have much trouble scoring, reaching double-digits in 12 of 17 games this season and 9-plus in 15 of 17. Defensively, though, they can be vulnerable, having allowed nearly seven goals per game and double-digit totals in five games.

Against Palos Verdes (19-1), HW will face a high-scoring and battle-tested team. The Sea Kings, who won the north bracket last season, average 13 goals per game and have been held under nine only twice. PV’s only lost was 8-7 to south bracket semifinalist JSerra Catholic in early April.

I haven’t seen PV play this season, and it’s hard to glean a lot about a team just by comparing scores and perusing stat sheets. But it’s clear the Sea Kings are solid on offense, led by senior attack Tony Romeri (59 G, 36 A); at the faceoff dot, led by freshman Peter Henkhaus (.693 pct) and senior freshman Rizal Smith (.735 pct); and on defense, led by senior defender Justin Jones (46 GBs, 45 CTOs) and sophomore goalie David McCann (.675 save pct).

I’ve seen Harvard Westlake a few times this season, and as much as I’d love to see the upsets continue and the Mission League stand up, I don’t think the Wolverines’ defense can hold up to a team as deep and talented as Palos Verdes.

South Final
No. 3 St. Margaret’s Episcopal vs. No. 1 Corona del Mar
Wednesday, 7:30 p.m., Mission Viejo HS

I haven’t seen either of these teams play this season, but I am somewhat familiar with Corona del Mar after their undefeated run to the Southern Section title last spring and the chance to watch many of them over the summer at Champ Camp. Suffice it to say, there is a lot of talent on this roster, enough that the Sea Kings kept winning even when star senior attack Jack Ortlieb was out with a hamstring injury.

Ortlieb was hurt April 20 in CdM’s 12-11 loss to St. Margaret’s — the team’s only loss to a Southern Section team in two seasons — and missed four games. He returned for Saturday’s semifinal win over JSerra and had two goals and an assist. One of the goals came in the closing seconds of the first half, when he fired in a laser from 30-yards out to cap a stellar fast break.

Ortlieb is joined up front by senior attack Casey Mix to form a potent offense — the Sea Kings average 13 goals per game — and they are supported by a solid defense — averaging 5 goals allowed per game — anchored by sophomore goalie Hoyt Crance. 3d does a much better job of breaking down key players for CdM here.

I know even less about St. Margaret’s, but judging from scores and stats — again, a less-than-perfect method — it appears the Tartans played a tough schedule right out of the gate, facing San Clemente, Oak Park, Foothill and San Diego schools La Costa Canyon and Cathedral Catholic. The result was a 2-4 start. Since then, though, St. Margaret’s has won 17 in a row, including a win over CdM, two over JSerra and one over Foothill. The Tartans have outscored three playoff opponents — El Toro, Tesoro and Foothill — 53-13.

Best I can tell, the St. Margaret’s offense runs through the senior attack duo of Alex Waller and Chase Williams, but any team that averages 13 goals a game — and 15 per game in its 17-game win streak — is getting contributions from more than a couple guys.

Crespi and senior goalkeeper Luke Mitchell have allowed only eight goals in winning two playoff games this week.

The top-seeded and defending champion Sea Kings beat Oak Park 9-5, but the rest of the evening very nearly belonged to the Mission League. Crespi held off Thousand Oaks 4-3 to advance, and sixth-seeded Harvard Westlake led from start to finish in dispatching No. 3 Agoura 16-8.

Seventh-seeded Loyola nearly pulled off the upset of the night, leading No. 2 Westlake 6-3 just before the half and 8-7 with less than five minutes to play. But Westlake responded, scoring three in the final four-plus minutes to win 10-8.

So the Marmonte League had three of the top four seeds in No. 2 Westlake, No. 3 Agoura and No. 4 Newbury Park. The Mission League had No. 5-seeded Crespi, No. 6 Harvard Westlake and No. 7 Loyola. Only Westlake remains alive from the Marmonte, while the Mission put two teams into the semis. One league overrated? The other underrated? Either way, it’s clear from the results so far that after Palos Verdes, there are a lot of pretty even teams in the north.

Judging by the scores out of Orange County, on the other hand, the seeding in the south was pretty accurate — or there is simply a bigger disparity between the top few teams and the rest of the field. In 12 games thus far — eight first round and four second round — there has been one upset (No. 9 Beckman over No. 8 Los Alamitos, 9-8) and eight double-digit winning margins. In fact, outside of that one-goal Beckman win, the closest margin in any game has been eight goals.

Let’s see if the Orange County semifinals can change that — Saturday at Aliso Niguel HS, 5 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. The OC title game will be played Wednesday at Mission Viejo HS, 8 p.m.

The north semis also take place Saturday, with Palos Verdes and Westlake playing host as the highest remaining seeds (times TBD). The north final will be played Wednesday, May 8, at Torrance West HS, 7 p.m.

The Southern Section final, featuring the north and south winners, will be played Saturday, May 11, at Torrance West HS at 1 p.m.

North bracket
First round
No. 1 Palos Verdes 13, No. 16 Brentwood 6
No. 9 Oak Park 11, No. 8 Malibu 6
No. 3 Agoura 6, No. 14 Cate 5
No. 6 Harvard Westlake 16, No. 11 Peninsula 7
No. 2 Westlake 12, No. 15 Palisades Charter 7
No. 7 Loyola 12, No. 10 Redondo Union 2
No. 13 Thousand Oaks 8, No. 4 Newbury Park 6
No. 5 Crespi 6, No. 12 Oaks Christian 5, OT

Second round
No. 1 Palos Verdes 9, No. 9 Oak Park 5
No. 6 Harvard Westlake 16, No. 3 Agoura 8
No. 2 Westlake 10, No. 7 Loyola 8
No. 5 Crespi 4, No. 13 Thousand Oaks 3

Semifinals
No. 5 Crespi (13-5) at No. 1 Palos Verdes (18-1), Saturday, 5 p.m.
No. 6 Harvard Westlake (13-3) at No. 2 Westlake (14-2), Saturday, 7:30 p.m.

South bracket
First round
No. 1 Corona del Mar 16, No. 16 Dana Hills 5
No. 9 Beckman 9, No. 8 Los Alamitos 8
No. 3 St. Margaret’s 17, No. 14 El Toro 3
No. 6 Tesoro 18, No. 11 Aliso Niguel 2
No. 2 Foothill 14, No. 15 Yorba Linda 5
No. 7 San Clemente 17, No. 10 Great Oak 5
No. 4 JSerra 14, No. 13 Newport Harbor 4
No. 5 Huntington Beach 10, No. 12 Santa Margarita 2

Second round
No. 1 Corona del Mar 18, No. 9 Beckman 5
No. 4 JSerra 16, No. 5 Huntington Beach 8
No. 3 St. Margaret’s 17, No. 6 Tesoro 4
No. 2 Foothill 13, No. 7 San Clemente 2

Semifinals at Aliso Niguel HS
No. 4 JSerra (15-4) vs. No. 1 Corona del Mar (17-2), 5 p.m. or 7:15 p.m.
No. 3 St. Margaret’s (18-4) vs. No. 2 Foothill (17-4), 5 p.m. or 7:15 p.m.

It was the second win over the Panthers in four days for the Lancers, who beat Newbury 9-6 Friday.

No. 5 Crespi avoided becoming the second upset victim, holding off No. 12 Oaks Christian in overtime, 6-5. Now the Celts play host to Thousand Oaks in a second-round game Thursday at 6 p.m. Last season, T.O. eliminated Crespi 13-12 in a first-round game.

No. 14 Cate nearly took down No. 3 Agoura, losing only 6-5. In another small upset in the north, ninth-seed Oak Park beat eighth-seeded Malibu 11-6.

The south bracket saw only one small upset, with ninth-seeded Beckman edging eighth-seeded Los Alamitos 9-8. Otherwise, the top seeds all advanced by margins of at least eight goals.

First-round playoff scores:

North bracket
First round
No. 1 Palos Verdes 13, No. 16 Brentwood 6
No. 9 Oak Park 11, No. 8 Malibu 6
No. 3 Agoura 6, No. 14 Cate 5
No. 6 Harvard Westlake 16, No. 11 Peninsula 7
No. 2 Westlake 12, No. 15 Palisades Charter 7
No. 7 Loyola 12, No. 10 Redondo Union 2
No. 13 Thousand Oaks 8, No. 4 Newbury Park 6
No. 5 Crespi 6, No. 12 Oaks Christian 5, OT

Second round: Thursday
No. 9 Oak Park (9-8) at No. 1 Palos Verdes (17-1), 5 p.m.
No. 6 Harvard Westlake (12-3) at No. 3 Agoura (14-4), 7:30 p.m.
No. 7 Loyola (12-6) at No. 2 Westlake (13-2), 7:30 p.m.
No. 13 Thousand Oaks (9-7) at No. 5 Crespi (12-5), 6:30 p.m.

South bracket
First round
No. 1 Corona del Mar 16, No. 16 Dana Hills 5
No. 9 Beckman 9, No. 8 Los Alamitos 8
No. 3 St. Margaret’s 17, No. 14 El Toro 3
No. 6 Tesoro 18, No. 11 Aliso Niguel 2
No. 2 Foothill 14, No. 15 Yorba Linda 5
No. 7 San Clemente 17, No. 10 Great Oak 5
No. 4 JSerra 14, No. 13 Newport Harbor 4
No. 5 Huntington Beach 10, No. 12 Santa Margarita 2

Second round: Thursday
No. 9 Beckman (13-4) at No. 1 Corona del Mar (16-2), 5:15 p.m.
No. 5 Huntington Beach (14-3) at No. 4 JSerra (14-4), 7:30 p.m.
No. 6 Tesoro (13-2) at No. 3 St. Margaret’s (17-4), 7:30 p.m.
No. 7 San Clemente (13-5) at No. 2 Foothill (16-4), 3:30 p.m.

Last year, CdM took down five-time champion Foothill in the South Division final before defeating Palos Verdes in the CIF championship game.

The first two rounds will be played this Tuesday and Thursday, respectively, and will be hosted by the higher seeded team.

Here is the full list of first-round pairings:

No. 16 Dana Hills (11-5) at No. 1 Corona del Mar (15-2)
No. 9 Beckman (12-4) at No. 8 Los Alamitos (11-6)

No. 14 El Toro (8-8) at No. 3 St. Margaret’s (16-4)
No. 11 Aliso Niguel (11-5) at No. 6 Tesoro (12-2)

No. 15 Yorba Linda (16-1) at No. 2 Foothill (15-4)
No. 10 Great Oak (12-5) at No. 7 San Clemente (12-5)

No. 13 Newport Harbor (6-11) at No. 4 JSerra (13-4)
No. 12 Santa Margarita (7-11) at No. 5 Huntington Beach (13-3)

North Division playoff pairings also were announced this weekend.

The winner of the South Division will take on the winner from the North in the CIF Southern Section championship game on May 11 at West High School in Torrance.