No. 1 La Cañada girls’ water polo upended by No. 4 Temple City

LA CAÑADA — At the beginning of the girls’ water polo season, La Cañada High was ranked No. 10 in the CIF Southern Section’s Division V.

By the start of the Rio Hondo League schedule against defending champion Temple City, the Spartans had risen to No. 1 in the division. But their rise, announced Monday by the CIF office, was followed by an immediate fall.

On Tuesday afternoon, in the league opener for both schools, the Rams were able to outlast the host Spartans and prevail 14-10 in overtime.

“That was a good game,” Spartans Coach Davey Brown said. “I told my girls that Temple City was the only team in league I didn’t win against last year. The Rams were the league champion going into this. We played our hardest and played our hearts out.”

La Cañada (6-5, 0-1 in league) was able to hold its own against Temple City, the No. 4-ranked squad in the division, when the sides were even. However, not as much when the Rams were handed a one-swimmer advantage by way of exclusion penalties called against the hosts, which happened repeatedly throughout. In total, the Spartans were called for 19 exclusion penalties, which led to eight goals for Temple City (10-2, 1-0).

“There were some real good ejections [called], but a couple of them, it was the [Temple City] girls acting,” Brown said.

By the time overtime arrived, the Spartans already had three players disqualified for receiving three penalties apiece in regulation — Heather Connolly, Camila Grases and Mimi Zwaneveld.

Despite this, the hosts jumped ahead just 11 seconds into the first half of overtime.

“It didn’t help [in overtime] that we had two of our starters out, plus the first one off the bench out, which was difficult,” Brown said. “We had to go deeper into our depth.”

After the Spartans won the opening sprint, La Cañada’s Genevieve Fraipoint took a pass on the left side of the pool before turning and firing it into the net for her team-high third goal and a 10-9 advantage. However, the next possession saw the Rams take advantage of Maddison Solares being excluded to work the ball around and find Sophia Chang for the equalizer.

“We’ve been working on that,” Ram Coach Oscar Dorado said of his squad’s man-advantage opportunities.

Soon after, Spartan Faith Florez was called for an exclusion and then another as she swam across the play as it continued. The resulting five-meter shot for the Rams was saved by Spartans goalkeeper Carolyne Stern.

The Rams tacked on two more in the final minute of the first overtime half with one at full strength and one with, the now familiar, man-advantage. The Rams would then score the only two goals of the second half of overtime.

The Spartans were ahead after the first period of regulation, 4-3, in which seven players scored. Solares got things started 59 seconds in from long range. After two Rams goals, Zwaneveld and then Fraipoint gave the lead back to La Cañada with back-to-back strikes. Caroline Daniels, off an assist by Solares, broke a 3-3 tie in the final minute to give her squad a one-goal cushion after the first.

In the opening moments of the second quarter, Julia Nicholls dipped under water and came up firing to put the hosts up, 5-3. The Spartans held until halfway through the period when they were called for exclusion penalties on three Rams possessions in a row. Stern made dynamic saves on the first two power plays, but Rayne Lopez cashed in on the third. That began a 3-0 scoring run for the Rams that lasted into the fourth period when the teams traded strikes in the first minute, leaving the visitors up, 7-6.

Down by two with 4:35 left in regulation, the Spartans exploded for three straight to take a 9-8 lead. The first two were put in by Daniels, who ended up with three for the match. The third was by Fraipoint, but the Rams sent the game into extra time when Sophia Chang scored with 1:59 left and the Rams on the power play.

The teams will play again Jan. 28 at Temple City.

“It is still on the table,” Brown said of the league title. “I told my girls, the feeling you have right now, of sadness or madness or whatever, take that into our practices and the next time we play them, we take it to them at their house.”