Whatever the rest of the season has in store for the Eastlake, Mar Vista and Bonita Vista boys water polo teams, expect it to include a wild finish.
All three teams came together to play some of the most meaningful games among South County teams this past week.
On Tuesday, Mar Vista may have played its best game this season in downing Eastlake, 12-7, to grab a share of the Mesa League lead.
On Wednesday, that same Eastlake team twice rallied from three-goal deficits to edge east side rival Bonita Vista, 12-11, in overtime to keep its chances intact for a league co-championship.
The win by Mar Vista was must-win if it wanted a share of this year’s championship; the victory by Eastlake on Wednesday was must-win for the same reason.
“A big-time gut-check,” summed up EHS senior Jake Rose.
The Titans had defeated the Mariners, 10-9, in the teams’ initial Mesa League encounter back on Sept. 13 at the Southwestern College pool. Since that meeting, the teams had won all of their ensuing league contests.
Eastlake entered Tuesday’s game, played in the intimate confines of the Mar Vista High School pool, with a 6-0 league record while the host Mariners were 5-1 in league play.
It was obvious Mar Vista had been waiting for the rematch for a month and quickly carved out a 3-0 first quarter lead on goals by senior Zach Hastings. Freshman Ethan Hastings, Zach’s younger brother, made it 4-0 with the first goal of the second quarter.
Eastlake scored the next two goals — one each by Diego Scheitt and Logan Eyer — to trim the early Mariner advantage to 4-2. The Titans managed to close the gap twice more to two-goal margins but playing catch-up against an aggressive defense eventually took its toll and the hosts would extend their lead to five goals, 10-15, with 5:13 left in the fourth quarter.
Eastlake junior goalie James Derrod made several spectacular saves but his 11 stops in the contest were not enough to keep Mar Vista at bay. Zach Hastings led the Mariners with six goals while Carlos Ibarra scored twice.
Ethan Hastings, Bryce Heber, Jeremy Longworth and David Speer each scored one goal in the victory.
“We pulled it off,” MVHS head coach Chad Kavanagh offered with a sigh of relief after Tuesday’s frenzied contest.
“After not being able to finish off the first game against them, we wanted to win and we took that mentality into this game. I think our mentality in the first game was more that we didn’t want to lose — we were too worried about stopping them and not them stopping us. We wanted to reverse that this time.”
Mar Vista, which improved to 15-4 overall, 6-1 in league play, has been in the Mesa League for the last five years. The Mariners won the league title with a perfect 10-0 record in 2014 in their first year after moving up from the South Bay League. Mar Vista advanced to the Division II championship game in 2014, losing 10-5 to Fallbrook.
Last year’s team advanced as far as the Division II quarterfinals.
“Last year was our best since 2014,” Kavanagh said. “We didn’t win it (the league title) but we lost in the CIF quarterfinals.”
Both the Mariners and Titans will compete in this weekend’s San Diego Open tournament. Mar Vista will play in one of the tournament’s higher tiers.
“We’re going to probably face some Division I teams,” the MV coach said. “If we can beat one of them, our boys can make a statement.
“Hopefully, this gives our guys a lot of confidence and we can keep it going.”
Rose led Eastlake with three goals on Tuesday while Eyer, Scheitt, Giancarlo Valverde and Kaden Nichols each scored one goal.
It was a fast turnaround to Wednesday’s rivalry game for the Titans, who had to decide whether they could quickly shake off the disappointing loss to Mar Vista or fall out of the championship race altogether.
It looked like either scenario was possible until Estlake erased a 10-7 deficit in the final 1:20 of regulation play on clutch goals by Redden, Will Gammon and Eyer in an effort to salvage their season.
Redden made it a two-goal game by scoring on a six-on-five man-up situation. Gammon made it a one-goal game with 51 seconds left while Eyer tied the game with 23 seconds to play.
Bonita Vista was unable to get off a shot in the dying seconds in an attempt to win the game.
The overtime consisted of two three-minute periods. Rose scored goals 20 seconds apart in the first overtime period to lift the Titans to a 12-10 lead while rallying for their fifth unanswered goals.
Emiliano Cruz scored with 43 seconds remaining in the second overtime to bring the Barons to within one goal on the scoreboard at 12-11. Bonita Vista had one last restart with three seconds left in the game but was unable to bat the ball past Derrod.
“When we were down by three goals, I didn’t think we would win,” Redden admitted.
But the Titans (7-1 in league play, 12-8 overall) showed to themselves that they could overcome adversity of the of most unkind nature. It has to be a big confidence boost heading into the upcoming playoffs.
Conversely, if the Barons can duplicate the effort they turned in on Wednesday, it might be time to watch out for Bonita Vista in the upcoming Division III playoffs.
Cruz scored seven goals to lead the Barons (3-5 in league, 12-8 overall) while Kyle Rex scored two goals and Archie Orozco scored once.
The Barons turned an early 4-1 deficit into leads of 9-6 and 10-7 in the early stages of the fourth quarter with a tremendous power surge, mostly off the arm of Cruz, who scored six times in the third and fourth quarters to rally his team.
However, leading by three goals, Bonita Vista saw its chances for more goals stymied on offensive foul calls. Cruz also hit the post on a penalty shot.
Eyer led the Titans with four goals in Wednesday’s victory while Rose chalked up three goals, including two in overtime. Redden was credited with two goals while Scheitt and Gammon each had one goal.
2018 Metro Conference
Boys Water Polo Standings
Mesa League
(Through Oct. 17)
Eastlake Titans 7-1
Mar Vista Mariners 6-1
Mater Dei Catholic 5-3
Bonita Vista Barons 3-5
San Ysidro Cougars 2-6
Hilltop Lancers 0-7
South Bay League
(Through Oct. 17)
Otay Ranch Mustangs 7-1
Olympian Eagles 5-2
Castle Park Trojans 4-3
Southwest Raiders 2-5
Chula Vista Spartans 0-6
Photo gallery by Phillip Brents
