Foothill water polo pulls the upset, 11-10, in Division I shocker
November 5th, 2008, 4:43 pm · · posted by DAN ALBANO, ocvarsity.com
Foothill fought off a 6-on-4 chance by El Toro in the closing seconds to secure an 11-10 victory.
In the closing seconds, Foothill blocked a shot from the perimeter and El Toro’s rebound attempt scored by time had expired.
Huge victory for the Knights, who earned the Sea View League title. Foothill was the better team today.
Overtime #1
Paul Reynolds’ lob and his cross pass to Clayton McFadden for a goal has the Knights up 11-9 after the first overtime. Jay Lovero had three more saves for Foothill and is over 20.Fourth period
El Toro’s Griffin White scored off a foul just outside 5 meters with six seconds and Tommy O’Connell blocked a shot with about two seconds left as the Chargers forced overtime, 9-9.
Foothill took a 9-8 lead on a spectacular sweep shot by Brenden Verloop with 17 seconds left. Verloop’s shot blasted off the bottom of the crossbar.
It looked the Knights had this won but now in overtime, the Chargers have the momentum and some pressure off them.
El Toro coach Don Stoll just walked by and seems very relaxed.
Third period
Brenden Verloop’s man-advantage strike and a counterattack goal by Paul Reynolds in the final 2:16 of the third have the Knights up 7-5 with seven minutes left in regulation. I like Foothill’s energy and poise. The Knights played more as a team in the third.
Second period
Jeff Zaccaro scored on a pretty, off-speed spinner lob from the wing with 2:31 left in the first half to give El Toro its first lead at 4-3. That was the last goal of the second period. Foothill goalie Jay Lovero has been hard to beat with 14 saves.
First period
Foothill goalie Jay Lovero made nine saves as the Knights opened a 2-1 lead on El Toro’s top-ranked boys water polo team after one period in Lake Forest.
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I am very interested in how El Toro will play Friday against Los Alamitos. That’s something to love about county water polo — all the coaches gladly schedule games against the toughest opponents. I wish more football and basketball coaches did that.
Thanks Dan for the blog for those of us who couldn’t be there! Very exciting. Could we have the box scores?
Div1Polo- I just posted the box score. And for all those wondering, Jay Lovero’s goalie stats are not a typo. The kid looked like Merrill Moses at the Olympics tonight. He had saves in the first period alone. Foothill’s Becky Brumm, who does a great with stats, had him with 23
What a shocker. The bigger shocker to me however was JSerra getting beat by Santa Margarita. How does the 3 way tie between JSerra, SM, and Servite get decided?
I have adjusted Lovero’s goalie saves to 23 … That last save against Griffin White doesn’t count because the goal would not have counted because of the ejection on the play – interference on a direct shot
polodad – you are correct that Santa Margarita’s win over JSerra was a bigger upset than Foothill over El Toro. SM coach Ricks wrote to me earlier today and called it the biggest boys win of his tenure.
The Eagles, however, need another big win Fri because … (Here’s the answer to your question)
JSerra’s boys water polo team this morning won a coin-flip for third place in the Trinity League, leaving Santa Margarita and Servite to play for third place. That match will be played Friday at Servite at 4 p.m.
The Eagles forced the three-way tie by upsetting No. 8 JSerra on Wednesday. But by winning the coin-flip, the Lions helped minimize the damage.
El Toro bounced back to beat No. 2 Los Alamitos by one goal (I believe it was 9-8) in overtime on Friday afternoon at El Toro’s pool in another exciting game.
Total clock mismanagement by referees in last few minutes of game on Wednesday, but Foothill’s goalie was awesome. A shootout would have really been something to see.
On Friday, Chargers raced to 4-1 lead at end of first quarter and led at halftime, 5-3. Played nearly half the game without Griffin White, who suffered an eye injury. Also standout sophomore Russell Reneteria did not play (I believe he was sick).
Griffins had ball for nearly entire last minute of second overtime period and couldn’t do anything with it, with game ending on a pass to a Los Al player inside 2-meters (penalty).
So what does this do to Division I rankings? Does Foothill jump over both El Toro and Los Alamitos? I think Chargers still deserve to be No. 1, having beaten Foothill earlier in season and having suffered only two losses (one to state’s top-ranked team, Miramonte).
BTW, El Toro’s Frosh-Soph and Novice teams both hammered Foothill on Wednesday to win Sea View League championships. The future looks bright for the Chargers.