Crescenta Valley water polo knocked out in first again

BURBANK — History has a tendency to repeat itself and that proved to be the case for Crescenta Valley High girls’ water polo team in its CIF Southern Section Division III first-round playoff contest against Corona Santiago.

For the second season in a row, the Falcons were knocked out of the postseason in the first round by way of a 12-8 loss to visiting Santiago in the pool at Burbank High School Thursday evening. With the loss, the Falcons finished 2-3 against ranked opponents within Division III.

“We’ve got to be ready to play hard in the first round,” CV coach Ricky Mulcahey said. “Every game in CIF is going to be a hard game. I know some people kind of think the first round is a drift through, but it’s not. When you are playing in our division, anyone can win.”

The second period proved to be the undoing of the Falcons. Crescenta Valley (24-5) started the period with a 2-1 advantage, but that soon disappeared. Santiago (18-9) tied the score 1:32 into the quarter and took the lead for good with 4:57 left on the first of Shark Brooke Barlow’s three goals in the second quarter.

After the visitors pulled ahead 4-2, the Falcons pulled back within one on a goal by Kaitlyn Moguel from long range. However, the Sharks answered the challenge 16 seconds later on another goal from Barlow. Barlow struck again in the final minute and CV entered the break trailing, 6-3.

Barlow would go on to lead all scorers with five goals. Moguel scored all three goals in the first half for the Falcons on the way to a total of four.

“I think our girls showed a lot of toughness beating a good Crescenta Valley team on the road,” Santiago coach Kyle Gorham said.

Falcon Alex Garas, making her return from injury, scored the first two goals to start the third period and once again pulled CV to within one.

“Unfortunately one of our better players, [Garas], was injured. She was using her left hand out there and she is normally right-handed,” Mulcahey said.

However, once again the Sharks answered quickly, scoring again just 18 seconds later. Santiago went on to score the next two before Moguel rifled a shot past the Sharks goaltender with a minute left to make the score 9-6 entering the fourth.

Santiago put any hope of a comeback to bed by scoring the first three goals of the final period. In the final minute of the contest, Crescenta Valley scored two goals. The first came off the hand of Roxie Jackson-Gain and the second came on a long-distance effort from Moguel.

“[Moguel] has been a leader. The kind of player every coach wants,” Mulcahey said of his senior. “Ever since she has been a freshman, she has been on varsity. [She is] one of the hardest workers, very loyal to the program. Just one of the hardest workers. An amazing player, very smart. She is just awesome.”

Crescenta Valley started strong, tallying the first two goals of the game. Both came from Moguel. The first was a penalty shot and the second was a long-distance blast.

Last season, Crescenta Valley fell in the first round of the Division II playoffs. This year it was a first-round defeat in Division III to Santiago. The Falcons were ranked No.10 in the division while the Sharks are at No. 7.

“If we want to play in this division, we’ve got to amp it up a little bit,” Mulcahey said.