Foothill’s Luke Fox (left) lunges towards goal against Loyola during the championship game of the CIF-SS Division 1 Men’s Lacrosse Playoffs at Tustin High, Tustin, Tuesday, June 8, 2021. (Sam Gangwar, Contributing Photographer)

The CIF Southern Section takes a page from the soccer playbook and uses a rating system to determine the seeds and divisions for the men’s and women’s lacrosse playoffs.

There are 40 schools grouped into Division 1/2 to start the season. At the end of the regular season, a computer-based rating system ranks the teams based on several factors, including record strength and schedule strength. Used to form the playoff bracket for Division 3).

Some lacrosse coaches don’t like the new system, mainly because they don’t know where their team will be during the season.

The weekly CIF-SS votes cast by the Coaches Commission will not be used to determine playoff seeds or whether teams will be placed in Division 1 or Division 2 in the playoffs.

The men’s and women’s playoffs begin May 1.

boys lacrosse notebook

The only Southern section men’s team to have qualified for the first two CIF-SS Division 1 Championship games, the Foothills have a 5-2 record and are undefeated against a team from California. Knight lost to Arizona’s Brophy Prep and Colorado’s Valor Christian.

Luke Fox leads the Knights with 37 points, while Jackson Hines has 25 goals and 33 points. …

St. Margaret’s (6-0) have the potential to be the best men’s team in the CIF-SS this season.

Junior Attackman Austin Hicks is the only five-star recruit in the section and is dedicated to the pen. Hicks leads the county in his points per game with 6.16 and Owen his binder has 31 points per game. …

Mater Dei (5-1) is ranked first in the CIF-SS Division 1/2 voting and is also undefeated against a team from California.

Monarch may have the best senior class in the county, led by Johns Hopkins signatory Triston Jewell and showdown specialist Lucas de La Paz.

Santa Margarita probably has the best chance of battling Mattel Day for the Trinity League championship. Ethan Messer has averaged nearly four goals per game with the Eagles, and Cole has his nine points in the defensive duo of Peters and Ryan Winters. …

Junior Jacques Armie scored seven goals for JSerra on Tuesday in a 15-3 win over Yorba Linda. …

Woodbridge recently defeated Beckman for the first time in the school’s history and are contenders for the first Pacific Coast League championship. Henry Clayton and Elliott Kim scored his four each in his 8–7 win over Beckman, and Hamza Ajaz excelled as a goalkeeper. …

The Clean Lutherans (7-1) are the county’s top men’s team in Division 3. Trey Kelly is one of the county leaders with his 34 points and AJ Bevacqua is his second on the team in scoring and ground balls.

Women’s lacrosse notebook

The Foothill women’s team has won back-to-back CIF-SS championships and is probably the team to beat in the Southern section.

Seniors Tatum Walshe and Maia Weaver are back as scorers, while freshman Kayla Aggarry leads the team in goals per game. Mikayla Yang may be the best goalkeeper in his County of Orange. His save rate is 75. …