LA MESA -- La Costa Canyon's Kylee Gibson had seen enough of the Torrey Pines girls lacrosse team to know she needed to do everything she could to secure a late face-off.

The Falcons -- a team that ended the Mavericks' 45-game area winning streak in the regular-season finale May 18 -- were unrelenting during Saturday's CIF San Diego Section championship, cutting LCC's lead to one with 58 seconds left in the game. So before Brown's teammate, Jackie Candelaria, sent that final face-off flying her way, Gibson was mentally preparing herself to keep the ball out of her opponents' hands.

"Just tuck it in, don't let 'em check it," Gibson said of her preparations.

"Just make sure you get it, run it down, and hold it. (Torrey Pines) played so amazing. So we just had to step up our game even more."

After falling behind early in the second half, La Costa Canyon's players stepped up their efforts collectively to rebound with a 6-5 win over Torrey Pines at Helix High. The victory marked the No. 1-seeded Mavericks' third consecutive lacrosse title and the fourth in school history. But to earn it, LCC (18-4) needed a flurry of late scores to overcome the No. 3-seeded Falcons (17-8).

Held scoreless for the game's first 36 minutes, 36 seconds, Candelaria -- the North County's leading goal scorer (77) -- evened the score at 3 shortly after the Mavericks came up empty-handed in back-to-back penalty situations.

Then it was Gibson's turn, as the senior took hold of a strong pass from Candelaria and answered with the go-ahead score. Jackie Mills added another goal for LCC at the 10:07 mark to open up a 5-3 lead. But Torrey's Annelysse Eggold trimmed the lead to one with one of two late goals before the Stanford University-bound Candelaria scored again.

Mavericks coach Katie Dolan said her team got all the drive it needed to stay focused late in the second half when Torrey Pines pulled off its 11-10 victory in the team's meeting 12 days earlier. Following the loss, LCC cruised to three double-digit victories before the championship.

"I think it helped a lot," Dolan said. "It was that extra motivation that we needed going into playoffs to begin with and then having another chance to face them."

Trailing by two was all the motivation Eggold needed as her teammates raced down the field in the game's waning moments. Anna Knowles fed Eggold who scored from the left to cut the lead to 6-5. But Candelaria powered through the final face-off and Gibson won a mad dash to the ball -- the 11th of 13 face-offs won by LCC.

"What a phenomenally well-played game from both sides," Torrey Pines coach Amanda Borquin said. "It was a battle on both ends. … It was a heart-breaker."

CORRECTION: Lacrosse players misidentified

Kylee Gibson and Jackie Mills were misidentified in a story about La Costa Canyon's 6-5 victory against Torrey Pines in the CIF San Diego Section girls lacrosse championship.

Gibson had two goals for the Mavericks in their victory. Mills also scored a goal for LCC.

We apologize.