Last season, the Bonita Vista Barons and Otay Ranch Mustangs boys water polo teams met four times, with the Mustangs claiming four victories, including the teams’ pairing in the quarterfinal round of the San Diego Section Division III playoffs.
The teams met Tuesday at Southwestern College in the first of what could be multiple meetings this season, with Bonita Vista enacting a bit of revenge by posting a 13-9 victory in the teams’ Mesa League opener.
BVHS coach Betty Alexander called it a big win for her team, especially since both squads are vying for key seeding points in the upcoming divisional playoffs.
“It was a big win for us, especially because we were missing so many on varsity due to vacation,” she said.
Bonita Vista played Tuesday’s game without five varsity players who were unavailable due to the Sweetwater district’s fall break vacation. However, one wouldn’t have noticed it too much.
The players who did suit up for the Barons (7-2) played smart defense, made timely passes and scored when the opportunity presented itself. Goalie Diego Sanchez was his usual self with 12 saves to buttress another standout performance.
Alexander said team play is definitely an emphasis this year.
“The big problem we had last year was feeding the ball to a strong player and not using all six players,” Alexander noted. “This year, we have a strong bench, anybody can play, and they all trust each other sharing the ball.”
The Mustangs, who advanced as far as last year’s division semifinals, took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Christian Medrano. But the Barons quickly stormed back to score three unanswered goals to lead 3-1.
Otay Ranch’s Eddie Rosenfeld scored the first of his three goals in the game to narrow the score to 3-2 at the end of the first period and the game settled into a back-and-forth scoring affair for most of the next two quarters.
Bonita Vista finally managed to build a three-goal cushion at 9-6 by the end of the third quarter. However, goals by Otay’s Cooper Mestre and Ivan Hernandez to start the fourth quarter reduced the Barons’ lead to one goal.
Bonita Vista calmly responded by reeling off the game’s next three goals to go up, 12-8, before Mestre scored his fourth goal of the contest with 17 seconds left.
Bruce Bello scored his second goal for the Barons with one second left to round out scoring in the game.
Diego Gomez paced the Barons with six goals while Gabe Montoya scored three goals. Freshman Emiliano Castro scored two goals.
Mustang goalie Roan Sharkey was credited with five saves.
The Barons have defeated four divisional opponents so far this season — Chula Vista (18-1 on Sept 10), Olympian (20-4 on Sept. 15), San Ysidro (12-10 on Sept. 25) and now Otay Ranch.
Bonita Vista placed ninth in last week’s Helix-Monte Vista tournament with a 3-2 record. The Barons defeated Monte Vista, Mt. Carmel and Mission Hills while dropping tourney match-ups to Del Norte and El Camino.
“We did well in the tournament but came back and didn’t do as well against San Ysidro,” the BVHS coach said.
Otay Ranch head coach Matt Chism is hoping his team can claim a top three seed in this year’s playoff field after making a history-making run to last year’s semifinals after being seeded fourth.
The Mustangs (6-6) own divisional wins this season over El Cajon Valley (13-2 on Sept. 8), Classical Academy (12-5 on Sept. 15), San Dieguito Academy (11-5 on Sept. 16), Mission Bay (10-8 on Sept. 17) and Chula Vista. Otay Ranch dropped a 9-4 match-up against Point Loma, currently No. 1 in the division power rankings, on Sept. 10.
Consistency, Chism noted, will be the key to the eventual success of this year’s squad, which returns nearly all starters off last year’s history-making team.
Top players for Otay Ranch continue to be Rosenfeld, Mestre and Angel Aguiar.
“We have some strong shooters,” Chism noted.
Mater Dei Catholic, the fourth of six teams in the Mesa League competing at the Division III level this season, scored a key 11-7 non-league divisional win at El Capitan on Sept. 22.
