By John M. Sherrard

A hard-fought, 15-9, loss to No. 4 seed Riverside City College ended the season for the No. 5 seed Mounties who amassed a state-leading 477 goals scored and had six players finish in the top five positions in the CCCAA statistics.

"Riverside was tough and very, very physical," Mt. SAC coach Marc Ruh said. "You try and prepare the team for the physicality in a team like them."

The Mounties will lose eight players this year and will need to replace some big numbers that they have accomplished.

"This was a very good group and even better men and just awesome guys," Ruh said of his sophomores. "That's the part I'm going to miss the most."

Mt. SAC, which finished the season with an overall record of 19 wins and 8 losses, was led by the states' No. 2 scorer, Scott McDill.

The sophomore, who only played at the Mt. SAC for one year, finished with 140 goals, just three shy of the state leader, Jonathon Wong of Citrus.

"I didn't expect to have the season I did," said McDill, who played his freshman year at the Air Force Academy.

"I have my teammates to thank for that (record number of goals)," McDill added. "It felt pretty great to get that many goals in one season. I've never scored that much before.

"We laid it all out and it is what it is."

The Mounties did just that in their final game of 2016.

They trailed early, 3-0, and 5-1 in the first period, but behind the offensive explosion of five consecutive goals, three by sophomore Thomas Randles, they came all the way back to take a 6-5 lead heading into the second period.

"This is probably the tightest group of guys to play with," said Randles, who was tops in the state in steals with 114, was fourth in assists with 61.

"It just kind of happened," said Randles of his multitude of thefts. "I have a good team behind me that allowed me to make those steals."

After McDill gave the Mounties a two-goal lead, 7-5, early in the second period, the Tigers outscored Mt. SAC, 5-1, for a 10-8 halftime lead and never relinquished the advantage the rest of the way with RCC coming away with the 15-9 win.

Another huge bright spot in the season for the Mounties was the play of goalie Andres Jaramillo.

"I have to keep reminding myself that he has only been playing goalie for four months," Ruh added. "I'm really proud of Andres for everything he did."

The sophomore had never played the position before and came through for the Mounties in leading them to 19 wins. He is tops in the state for wins.

The other half of Mt. SAC's scoring duo was sophomore Jeffrey Silverberg with 85 goals.

Silverberg, who was a teammate of McDill's at Walnut HS, finished third in the state in steals (87) and fourth is assists with 61.

"Mt. SAC is a really good program and I've enjoyed playing here," Silverberg said.