La Cañada boys’ water polo stays in first following rout of Temple City

PASADENA — Though a Rio Hondo League-opening loss to Temple City High hasn’t been entirely forgotten, it seems to have sparked the La Cañada High boys’ water polo team.

Looking to exact some revenge Thursday, La Cañada received six goals from George Avakian and three from Luke Stefan to post a 13-1 win against Temple City at Pasadena City College.

The Spartans (12-5, 5-1 in league for first place) turned in an outstanding defensive effort to limit the Rams (16-7, 4-2) to primarily perimeter shots, which ultimately led La Cañada avenging its only league loss and holding Temple City to 10 fewer goals than it scored in the teams’ first match.

“I think we’ve become a much more cohesive team since the first time we played Temple City,” said La Cañada Coach Josh Rodriguez, whose team suffered an 11-9 defeat to Temple City on Oct. 4. “We knew we’d have to get the job done on defense, because they have a very good team with some dangerous players.

“It’s a huge win, no doubt. We had to stay patient on offense and defense and I think we came into the match in good condition.”

Avakian and Stefan carried the bulk of the offense for the Spartans, ranked second in CIF Southern Section Division V.

Avakian and Jeremy Kim scored a minute apart early in the first quarter to give the Spartans a 2-0 lead.

Temple City cut the deficit to 2-1 on a five-meter goal by Adam Dow with 4:21remaining in the first quarter before the Spartans short-circuited the Rams offense.

Stefan and Wyatt Lowe closed out of the first-quarter scoring to make it 4-1.

“I think we learned a lot from our first game against Temple City and we knew we’d have to jump out early,” Stefan said. “After we did that, we were able to focus on playing smart defense.

“Starting league with a loss didn’t look good and it dialed us up a lot. We have played well since.”

La Cañada held a 7-1 halftime advantage.

Stefan, a senior, finished with two third-quarter goals to help the Spartans take a 10-1 lead. Avakian added two goals in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.

“I think we are playing well at both ends right now,” Avakian said. “We play hard on defense.

“We were able to get four goals off counter-attacks and we have a lot of speed. I think it’s one of the best games we’ve played so far. We were fired up when we got those first couple of goals and we knew exactly what we needed to do the rest of the way. My teammates worked hard and got me some good passes to put me in position to contribute with some goals.”

La Cañada received two goals from Kim and one apiece from Lowe and Vince Wardle.

La Cañada goalkeeper Reed Fundter finished with seven saves.

“I think we did a real good job when we had possession of the ball,” Rodriguez said. “It gets everybody involved and that’s what you need in games like this one.”