The Eastlake High School girls water polo team made history by winning the school’s first San Diego Section championship in the sport after defeating the San Pasqual Golden Eagles, 9-7, in the Division III final last Saturday at La Jolla High School.
The championship is the first for a water polo team at the east side Chula Vista school, either girls or boys.
“I wasn’t sure we could do it since our boys only made it to the quarterfinals in the fall, but we played hard,” said junior Brianna Mullalley, who scored six goals and added one steal in the division championship game. “It’s really exciting to be the first team to win a CIF title for our school.”
Top-seeded Eastlake (17-12) played from behind for most of the game before finally taking the lead, 5-4, on a goal by Mullalley early in the third quarter. Lady Titans goalie Ezra Medina received constant pressure from seventh-seeded San Pasqual (11-19) throughout the game, allowing three goals in the first half as the teams battled to a 3-3 standoff and two goals in the third quarter as the teams fought to a 5-5 tie.
Mullalley scored on a back-hand shot with 1:54 left in the third quarter to put the Lady Titans ahead 6-5. Eastlake had its first two-goal lead of the back-and-forth contest when Riley Toon scored the opening goal of the fourth quarter to make the score 7-5 .
Mullalley scored her fifth goal of the game to increase the Lady Titan lead to 8-5 and then recorded her double hat trick to push Eastlake to a 9-5 advantage with 4:16 left in the game.
The San Pasqual offense showed some signs of life after the Lady Titans’ uncontested four-goal run when Megan Perko scored on a five-meter penalty shot with 2:43 left in regulation play and Mary Kate McDonough added another goal with 1:45 remaining.
Toon hit the post on a shot that could have given Eastlake some additional breathing room, but the Lady Titan defense was able to hold the Golden Eagles off the scoreboard the rest of the way, playing keep-away with the ball in the final 25 seconds.
The opening quarter ended in a 1-1 deadlock as Mullalley evened the score after Perko had given the Golden Eagles the early lead on a penalty shot. San Pasqual went on to build at 3-1 lead midway through the second quarter before Eastlake rallied with goals by Mullalley and Jana Miclat in the final 1:19 of the first half.
EHS coach Stuart Sokil said the key to his team’s championship performance was its turnaround play in the second half.
“The first half was sloppy, the second half was not as sloppy,” he said. “The defense was strong for the whole game.”
Medina was credited with 14 saves in the game.
Assistant coach Justin Patacsil said he thought the turning point in the game was when the Lady Titans managed to forge a two-goal lead.
“The momentum changed,” Patacsil noted.
Sokil, a Hilltop High School alumnus and former player at Southwestern College, made his coaching debut this season with Eastlake.
“I was going to assist at University City but when I heard about this job, I put in for it because I didn’t think it would be open long. It was trial by fire.”
Sokil and his staff guided Eastlake to a runner-up finish in Mesa League play with a 6-4 league record (tied with Bonita Vista). Both teams placed behind league champion Mar Vista (10-0 in league).
The Lady Titans finished 4-1 in second-round league play.
“We played better in the second half of the season,” Sokil explained.
Eastlake advanced to the championship game after posting an 18-3 quarterfinal-round win over ninth-seeded Mater Dei Catholic and a 12-5 semifinal-round win over fifth-seeded San Marcos.
Mullalley scored eight goals in the win over MDCHS while Elisa Levine had five goals in the win over San Marcos.
San Pasqual, which was led in scoring in the championship game by Perko with five goals, prevented an all-Metro Conference CIF final by doubling up third-seeded San Ysidro, 12-6, on Feb. 23.
In fact, the Golden Eagles provided the upset card in this year’s divisional playoffs by eliminating second-seeded Escondido, 8-3, in the quarterfinals on Feb. 19.
San Ysidro (18-12) defeated sixth-seeded Olympian, 7-6, in the quarterfinals in a match-up of South Bay League co-champions.
A total of six Metro teams were included in this year’s 12-team Division III playoffs: Eastlake, San Ysidro, Olympian, Mater Dei Catholic, Castle Park and Chula Vista.
Mater Dei Catholic (3-23) sped past eighth-seeded Castle Park, 14-3, in first round action on Feb. 17 while San Pasqual eliminated 10th-seeded Chula Vista, 10-2, in another opening round contest.
Olympian (14-15) opened post-season play in style by recording its first win in its first playoff game in school history as the Eagles swam past 11th-seeded Oceanside by a score of 14-3.
