The Mar Vista Mariners continued to add to what appears to be a record-setting season by capturing their seventh consecutive Mesa League contest without a loss after downing the Hilltop Lancers, 13-7, Tuesday at the Parkway pool.
The Mariners, perennial South Bay League champions, are doing just fine in the move “up” to the more competitive Mesa League this season.
The team’s overall 22-4 record speaks for its success this season. The Mariners won this year’s East County Invitational with an undefeated 5-0 record and had an amazing 18-game unbeaten streak broken last week in the San Diego Open tournament where they placed 11th out of 40 teams.
Mar Vista is currently ranked second among San Diego Section Division II teams. That field includes the six-time defending Mesa League champion Eastlake Titans.
The Mariners sank the Titans, 9-7, in a high profile encounter Oct. 21 at the Southwestern College pool.
“The secret to our success is the year-round playing experience of a lot of our guys who play off-season polo,” MVHS head coach Chad Kavanagh explained. “That shows in experience and being comfortable with the game. We’ve been down in a lot of games and came back to win at the end, and we’ve won some overtime games. It’s been exciting to see these guys compete at a high level.”
Josh Johnson led the Mariners with four goals in Tuesday’s game while fellow senior Shane Landry scored three goals and juniors Faux Mahan and Loukas Lopez each scored two goals. Lopez led the team with seven points by adding five assists while Mahan paced the league leaders with five steals.
Goalie Hector Ramirez had 15 saves and proved simply unbeatable at times.
“We’re hoping to try to finish the season pretty hard and win league and place high in CIF,” said Landry, a four-year player.
While the Mariners have found the Mesa League to their liking this season, make no mistake that games have been hard-fought. The Lancers, who have dropped five two-goal games and seven three-goal games this season, were the better team for much of the first half. However, failure to execute on key plays gave the Mariners hope for a comeback, which the Imperial Beach team seized with authority.
The Lancers (2-5 in league, 9-12 overall) led early 3-1 and trailed 8-5 entering the final quarter before the visitors pulled away for the final six-goal victory.
Emilio Maldonado scored on a pair of penalty shots for Hilltop.
Crusaders top Lancers, 12-7, in quest to solidify Division II playoff seeding
The Mater Dei Catholic Crusaders are in thick of the chase for a berth in the upcoming San Diego Section Division II boys water polo playoffs. The Crusaders took a big step toward solidifying a top 12 spot after defeating the Hilltop Lancers, 12-7, in a Metro-Mesa League encounter Thursday at the Parkway pool.
The win was Mater Dei Catholic’s second in league play over Hilltop. The Crusaders won the previous match-up, 7-6, in their own pool.
“Every game for us from now on is pretty much must-win,” MDC coach Guy Souza explained. “We lost to Bonita Vista and a rising Otay Ranch team recently, which dropped us lower in the division. We entered this game as the No. 11 seed, and hopefully this win will move us back into the top 10 where we had been for most of the season.”
Thursday’s victory actually snapped a four-game losing streak by the Crusaders. Mater Dei Catholic dropped a 12-10 decision to Mesa League leader Mar Vista on Oct. 16, then absorbed a 12-10 setback in overtime to Bonita Vista on Oct. 21 before being sunk, 14-5, by Eastlake on Oct. 23.
Mater Dei Catholic’s slide continued with a 7-6 loss to Otay Ranch on Tuesday.
Thursday’s win upped the Crusaders’ league record to 3-5 and overall record to 12-10.
Ben Brown led MDC with six goals in the win over Hilltop (2-6, 9-13) while Claudio Quiroz and Estevan Macklis each scored twice. Ben Mullendore and Jeffrey Jovellano each were credited with one goal.
The score was close in the early going, though the Crusaders never trailed in the game.
MDC scored their first goal on a five-meter penalty shot by Brown and took a 2-1 lead on a lob shot by Macklis. Goals by Hilltop’s Noah Collins and Wyatt Schmidt tied the game at 1-1 and 2-2, but Brown scored his second goal of the quarter to put his team back in front 3-2.
Brown scored on another penalty shot to open the second quarter to boost the visitors ahead 4-2. Another perfectly-placed lob by Collins reduced the Crusader lead to 4-3. But Mellendore upped the MDC lead to 5-3 on a goal 46 seconds before halftime.
The Crusaders scored the opening goal of the second half to lead, 6-3, and that edge proved to be the Lancers’ undoing. Hilltop narrowed the score to 9-7 in the fourth quarter but MDC reeled off the final three goals – two by Quiroz and one by Macklis to seal the victory for the visitors.
Brown, a freshman, had totaled 93 goals in 19 games played this season, followed by Mullendore, a senior, with 58 goals in 18 games.
Collins paced the Lancers with four goals while Emilio Maldonado, Schmidt and Anthony Torrol each scored once. Greg Del Rio was credited with seven goalie saves.
Hilltop is vying for a Division II playoff berth as well.
Fallbrook, which defeated Grossmont to win this year’s San Diego Open tournament championship, is currently seeded No. 1 in Division II. The Warriors are 19-7. Other teams contending for playoff berths include Mar Vista (23-4), Eastlake (19-7), Monte Vista (16-9), Del Norte (15-11), Point Loma (13-11), Helix (14-11) and Clairemont (14-9), Steele Canyon (9-11), La Jolla Country Day (8-10), Rancho Bernardo (11-14), El Capitan (9-14) and Patrick Henry (7-12).
Twelve of the 18 teams in the division will advance to post-season play. Both Hilltop and Mater Dei Catholic will be looking to earn a spot with good showings in their final two games.
The Crusaders play at Mar Vista on Tuesday, Nov. 4, and close out regular season play with a Nov. 6 game against Bonita Vista at Southwestern College.
Hilltop plays Eastlake Nov. 4 at SWC and closes regular season play with a Nov. 6 game against Otay Ranch at the Loma Verde pool.
The Lancers dropped a 7-6 contest to Helix at the San Diego Open but defeated El Capitan (17-3) in a non-league match-up. Hilltop is 1-1 this season against Point Loma and 0-1 against both Clairemont and Monte Vista. The Lancers also dropped a 10-7 game to West Hills, which sits at 4-12 in the Division standings.
The Crusaders have defeated Point Loma, El Capitan and West Hills but dropped division match-ups against Monte Vista, Del Norte, Eastlake (three times) and Mar Vista.
Mar Vista 10, Bonita Vista 4
The Mariners remained undefeated in league play by downing the host Barons in a game played Thursday evening at Southwestern College. Loukas Lopez led Mar Vista with three goals while Faux Mahan had two goals and Josh Johnson, James Mickelson and Raymond Medrano each scored once. Bonita Vista received single goals from Matt Ayala, Chris Montoya, Jose Ibanez and Matt Michaud.
Mesa League Standings
(Through Oct. 30)
Mar Vista 8-0, 23-4
Eastlake 7-1, 19-7
Mater Dei Catholic 3-5, 12-10
Hilltop 2-6, 9-13
Otay Ranch 2-6, 8-11
Bonita Vista 2-6, 9-18
