The Matadors, who last won a CCS championship in 1980, came out strong in the beginning, with goals from junior Nick Sinzig, junior Sean Hughes and senior captain Jubin Honarvar.

However, the potent Titan offense scored four unanswered goals in the third period, placing the Titans in a 7-3 lead and prompting coach Ron Freeman to call a timeout. 

"The best way to deal with being down [on goals] is to just keep playing," Hughes said. "As a team, we let it get away from us." 

The Titans scored two more goals before junior Alex Bagdasarian, who was named MVP for the varsity team as a sophomore, sparked the Matadors to mount a comeback with his first goal of the night, bringing the score to 9-4 with the Titans still in the lead.

"I got some points when we had a man-up.  They would put a guy on me, but when he made a mistake, I found a way to score," Bagdasarian said.

Sophomore Cameron Yates found the back of the net with a tip-in from Sinzig’s pinpoint pass to start off the fourth period. As the Matadors began to find their rhythm, Bagdasarian ripped another shot straight into the cage, scoring his second goal of the night to cut down the Titans’ lead to three goals. Though this turn of events prompted the Titans’coach to call a timeout, the Matadors would bring the score no closer as the Titans came right back, scoring two more goals.

The night ended in disappointment for the Matadors with a 11-6 loss to the Titans though junior goalie Andrew Sabour made a big stop on a Titans breakaway in the final minute.

"We played really hard [tonight], but we made mistakes that gave them the opportunities to score," Freeman said.  "[When we were down], we tried and pushed too hard so we gave up easy goals coming back the other way."