Crescenta Valley girls’ water polo captures outright league crown
ARCADIA — Throughout most of the season, the second half has belonged to the Crescenta Valley High girls’ water polo team.
In its quest to win the Pacific League championship outright, Crescenta Valley turned to the third quarter to get complete the task at hand.
Top-seeded Crescenta Valley scored four third-quarter goals en route to an 8-6 victory against second-seed Burroughs on Thursday in the league tournament championship match at Arcadia High.
Crescenta Valley (24-4, 8-0 in league) won the league championship for the ninth straight season. The Falcons, ranked 10th in CIF Southern Section Division III, clinched a share of the league crown Tuesday with a 19-7 semifinal win against fourth-seed Arcadia.
The Falcons were in no mood to share the league championship with Burroughs (10-5, 6-2).
“It was a pretty close game right up to halftime and we knew we had to get going in the second half,” Crescenta Valley coach Ricky Mulcahey said. “We seem to do well in the second half and we have a lot of experienced players. Plus, we do a good job at wearing down the other team.
“Burroughs came out strong to to start the game and we knew right there that Burroughs meant business. We had to regroup a little and we were able to tire them out in the third quarter. It’s great to win league and it’s always a goal of ours.”
Crescenta Valley, which competed without two-time reigning All-Area Girls’ Water Polo Player of the Year Alex Garas because of an injury, held a 4-2 halftime lead before taking charge in the third quarter. The Falcons received two goals in the third quarter from Kaitlyn Moguel (match-high four goals) and Roxie Jackson-Gain to build an 8-4 advantage.
“We knew what we needed to do going into the third quarter,” Moguel said. “Sometimes we come out flat in the second half, but we sure know how to respond in the second half and we were able to do that today.
“We got some goals and were able to pull away. It’s an honor to extend the program’s tradition with winning league championships. It’s something I’ve been able to do my four years here. We’ll see what we can do in the playoffs.”
Moguel scored two goals in less than a minute in the third quarter to make it 6-3.
Burroughs, which earned a 10-6 semifinal win against third-seeded Glendale on Tuesday, got two five-meter goals from Gwen Turla in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter to close out the scoring.
“We’ve got nothing to be ashamed of,” said Burroughs coach Jacob Cook, whose team is ranked eighth in Division VI. “I think we held our own for the most part against a very good team that’s in Division III and we can learn a lot from this experience.
“I think we are confident going into the playoffs and we’ll keep at it and work on things at practice to put us in a good position.”
Jackson-Gain finished with three goals for the Falcons, who got one from Hanna Ziccardi.
Burroughs got three goals from Turla and one each from Bianca Sanchez, Cameron Flores and Alead Orozco.
The playoff pairings for all seven divisions will be released Saturday.
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
