The Pacific Coast Athletic Conference men’s and women’s water polo championship tournament took place last weekend at Southwestern College’s aquatics complex. Grossmont College teams advanced to both gender finals with the top-seeded men’s team taking first place with a 12-10 win over second-seeded Palomar and the second-seeded women’s team placing runner-up to top-seeded Miramar via a 9-6 setback.
Both championship games were spirited affairs, with berths in the Southern California regional playoffs at stake for the champion.
Both top-seeded teams won to keep their seasons afloat. The next rung up the playoff ladder is this weekend at Orange Coast College. The state championship tournament is Nov. 21-23 at Long Beach City College.
Grossmont College finished 2-0 at this year’s tournament. The Griffins (22-9) defeated fourth-seeded Southwestern, 25-9, in last Friday’s semifinals before engaging the Comets in Saturday’s championship game.
The conference championship is the Griffins third in four years.
“We have a good mix of freshmen and sophomores … our sophomore class is strong,” Grossmont head coach Ty Lackey said. “It’s come along really well. We set a goal to win our conference and make a run at regionals.”
Palomar defeated third-seeded San Diego Mesa, 11-5, in last Friday’s semifinals.
Mesa edged Southwestern, 12-10, in Saturday’s third place game while Palomar edged Crafton Hills, 9-8, in the women’s third place game.
Sophomore Jake Simpson (Grossmont High) scored four goals in the championship game to pace the Griffins. Freshman Miles Boone (Valhalla) scored three goals while freshman Xylen Rotsart (Helix) tallied twice. Sophomores Lucas Draper (Patrick Henry) and Raul Rico (Hilltop) each had one goal.
Freshman Esequiel Antunez (Helix) braced the champions in the cage.
Rotsart (96 goals) is the team’s goal-scoring leader while Simpson (84 goals) is second on the list. Freshman Ryan Motta (Grossmont High) paces the team with 60 assists. Draper and sophomore Dustin Walter (Ramona) are tied for the team lead with 34 steals.
The teams went goal-for-goal to start the championship game before Grossmont took a 5-3 lead at the end of the first quarter. Palomar rallied to take an 8-6 lead midway through the second quarter. A goal by Boone pulled the Griffins to within one goal at 9-8 by the end of the third quarter.
Boone tied the game, 9-9, to open the final quarter as the regular season champions continued to build momentum to push ahead 11-9 on a pair of goals by Rotsart.
A power play goal by the Comets reduced the Grossmont lead to 11-10 with 3:55 remaining in reg-ulation. Rico scored a huge insurance goal with 1:41 to play to put the Griffins back in front by two goals.
The game was as emotional as it was physical.
“There was lots of emotion, nerves,” Lackey said. “It was the same type of game when we played them in the regular season and went to overtime. We started out strong, kind of relaxed a little in the middle and finished strong.”
Cody Poure and Jack Fritz led the Comets with three goals each in the final.
Assistant coach David Calder, who played at Grossmont in 1984-85, is retiring after a four-year stint with three PCAC championships. “I’m glad to have given back to the school that helped me when I was young,” he said.
Miramar, the regular season women’s champion, opened up a 5-2 lead on the Lady Griffins at halftime. A power play goal by Grossmont’s Liliana Warder reduced to Lady Jets’ lead to 5-3 but Miramar rebounded to go up 7-3 early in the final quarter.
The Lady Griffins (14-9) trailed, 8-4, with 4:55 left but scored two of the game’s final three goals to finish strong.
It marked Grossmont’s third loss to Miramar this season.
“It’s been a good season, better than last year,” Lady Griffins head coach Kimmy Keach said. “We have a strong group of sophomores. We held their scoring down but we needed to score in double digits to win.”
Warder and Elizabeth Spiller (Helix) led Grossmont with two goals each while Makenna Rossiter (Helix) and Payge Miller (Patrick Henry) each scored once.
Miramar sophomore Nalani Galindo (Poway) keyed all players in the pool with four goals while sophomore Emma Roberson (Clairemont) scored twice.
It was just the second time in school history that the Lady Jets (20-6) had advanced to the championship game.
“Our focus is to play our game regardless of the opponent — like we’re playing everyone for the first time,” Miramar head coach Lucy Gates said. “We want to play to our potential and not worry about the scorebook.”
Jaguar Nation
Southwestern finished fourth in the men’s regular season standings and fifth in the women’s regular season standings.
The semifinal loss to eventual champion Grossmont relegated tge Jaguars to the third place game against Mesa (the third place regular season finisher).
Cadena had four goals in both the semifinal and third place games. Mar Vista alum Nathan Crosby had three goals in the bronze medal game.
Cadena (134 goals, 32 assists) is the top scorer in the state. Crosby was next on the Jaguars scoring list with 86 goals and 65 assists, followed by a trio of Bonita Vista grads: Kristian Gutierrez (53 goals, eight assists), Santiago Salinas (31 goals, 33 assists) and Aidan Omelina (11 goals, 33 assists).
“We only had one returner, so it was basically a new team,” SWC men’s coach Jorge Perez said. “It’s more of a second-year project.”
PCAC Water Polo Finals
Friday, Nov. 8
Women’s semifinals
(2) Grossmont 7, (3) Palomar 5
Men’s semifinals
(1) Grossmont 25, (4) Southwestern 9
(2) Palomar 11, (3) San Diego Mesa 5
Saturday, Nov. 9
Medal Rounds
Women’s third place: (3) Palomar 9, (4) Crafton Hills 8
Men’s third place: (3) San Diego Mesa 14, (4) Southwestern 12
Women’s championship: (1) San Diego Miramar 9, (2) Grossmont 6
Men’s championship: (1) Grossmont 12, (2) Palomar 10
Men’s Standings: Grossmont 22-9 (5-0 regular season), Palomar 14-21 (4-1 regular season), San Diego Mesa 9-12 (3-2 regular season), Southwestern 10-20 (2-3 regular season), Crafton Hills 0-6 (0-2 regular season), San Diego Miramar 2-14 (0-4 regular season)
Women’s Standings: San Diego Miramar 2906 (4-0 regular season), Grossmont 14-9 (3-1 regular season), Palomar 11-16 (2-2 regular season), Crafton Hills 4-10 (1-3 regular seasons), Southwestern 6-19 (0-4 regular season)
PCAC ROUNDUP
JC soccer
Lady Jaguars kickers improve to 19-1-1 with 7-0 win over Grossmont, eye regional playoff berth
There are four rounds of regional playoffs for California community colleges and, with a commanding 19-1-1 record, the Southwestern College women’s soccer team has to fit in somewhere among the favorites.
The Lady Jaguars blasted visiting Grossmont, 7-0, last Friday to finish regular season play with a 13-1-1 conference record, second to MiraCosta’s 14-0-1 PCAC mark.
The regional playoffs start Nov. 20. SWC, ranked No. 10 in the state, is 10-0-1 at home this season.
Bonita Vista alumna Jenica Stell led the scoring parade against the Lady Griffins (3-12-2) with two goals and one assist while fellow BVHS alumna Alyssa Pulido contributed a goal and assist.
The 19 wins match that from the 2017 season as one of the top records in school history.
“They’re gritty, they’re aggressive, they’re competitive, they’re technically very strong,” SWC coach Carolina Soto assessed of her team.
“It’s really rewarding, though it’s hard in practice,” said Stell, the conference leader with 25 goals and 11 assists. ”It’s not one thing, we are in it all together. Everyone has the same goal.”
