La Cañada High boys’ water polo proves mettle on road
In what La Cañada High boys’ water polo’s Josh Rodriguez believes is a CIF Southern Section championship run, the first-year coach was in search of a signature playoff road win.
His team may have secured one Thursday afternoon as the second-seeded Spartans held off a challenge from Tri-Valley League runner-up and host Carpinteria in an 11-8 victory in the second round of the CIF-SS Division V playoffs.
“Getting big road wins is a great feeling,” Rodriguez said. “It’s not easy going into someone’s home pool when they have a big crowd and plenty of noise. It’s great experience going forward for this team in the playoffs.”
With the triumph, the Rio Hondo League champion Spartans (19-8) earned advancement to Saturday’s quarterfinals, where they’ll face Los Padres League champion Santa Ynez (24-6). The Pirates earned their trip by defeating Cypress, 17-13, on Thursday.
Saturday’s game will be played at Pasadena City College at 11:30 a.m.
Even though La Cañada missed the postseason in 2015, Rodriguez appears to have the Spartans back on track, as the squad qualified to the quarterfinal round for the sixth time in seven years.
Senior attacker Luke Stefan led the Spartans with a team-high six goals, with half that production coming in the final quarter.
Carpinteria (10-6) only trailed, 8-7, heading into the final frame in a frenzied environment when Stefan kept the Warriors at bay with all three of La Cañada’s goals in the fourth quarter.
On the flip side, a Spartans defense that had surrendered at least two goals every quarter held upset-minded Carpinteria to one goal in the fourth to preserve the 11-8 victory.
“In the fourth quarter, it was just a matter of relying on each other and sticking to the game plan,” Rodriguez said. “The game plan for us was to grind and grind and grind until we wore down the other team.”
La Cañada led, 4-2, after one quarter when Carpinteria answered with its best seven minutes of play.
The Warriors blanked the Spartans in the second quarter, while winning the frame, 2-0, to tie the score at 4 going into halftime.
La Cañada won the third quarter, 4-3, to hold an 8-7 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Spartans junior goalie Reed Fundter finished with 15 saves, while freshman two-meter attacker George Avakian added three goals and Alec Abrahamian and James Lowe contributed a score each.
A win Saturday would advance La Cañada to the program’s first semifinal since 2012.
