Defense rules pool for La Cañada boys’ water polo
PASADENA — On a morning in which the La Cañada High boys’ water polo team’s offense was held in check, the defense more than picked up the slack.
The Spartans were relentless and aggressive in shutting down visiting Los Padres League champion Santa Ynez, 7-3, in Saturday’s quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Division V playoffs at Pasadena City College.
The victory vaults the second-seeded Spartans (20-8) into Wednesday’s semifinals back at PCC at 5 p.m. versus third-seeded Burroughs (23-6). The high-flying Indians punched their ticket to the program’s first semifinal since 1998 with a 16-8 win over Jurupa Valley on Saturday.
As for La Cañada, the Rio Hondo League champions are back in the semifinals for the first time since 2012.
“The strategy on defense is to make sure we have the highest percentage of being successful,” La Cañada Coach Josh Rodriguez said. “Today, we wanted to keep most of their shots outside of five [meters] and put our goalie in a position where he doesn’t have to guess.”
La Cañada outshot Santa Ynez (23-7) by a 22-17 margin with only nine of the Pirates’ shots coming on goal.
Even in six-on-five chances, Santa Ynez finished one for six with only two shots on goal. The Pirates’ final two attempts – both in the third quarter – were swatted away via field blocks.
“We’ve been going over blocks earlier in the year and we’ve actually been tested on them,” La Cañada senior Tyler Chung said. “So, we know how to react in those situations.”
La Cañada never allowed more than one goal in a quarter versus Santa Ynez to continue an amazing run this postseason, as the Spartans have held opponents to two or fewer goals in 11 of 12 quarters.
The Spartans led, 2-0, after one quarter thanks to goals from senior Luke Stefan (two goals and two steals) and freshman George Avakian, who received an expulsion midway through the third quarter after three exclusions.
La Cañada eventually extended its lead to 3-0 on an Avakian goal off an assist from sophomore Alec Abrahamian on a man-advantage opportunity with 4:39 left in the second quarter.
Finally, Santa Ynez broke a more-than 10-minute drought with a six-on-five score from Spencer Lee thanks to an assist from Grant Davidson with 4:03 remaining.
Though Santa Ynez only trailed, 3-1, going into the half, the Pirates never closed the deficit.
La Cañada created space with goals from Abrahamian and Stefan that were set up on steals from goalie Reed Fundter (six saves and three steals) and senior Wyatt Lowe as the Spartans led, 5-1, with 6:02 in the third.
The teams traded goals as the Spartans went ahead, 6-2, after three.
In the fourth, the Spartans and Pirates scored a goal each, but Santa Ynez was limited to two shots in the final frame, while it committed six turnovers.
“It was a real physical game with very up and down play,” said Abrahamian, who finished with one goal, five steals and two assists. “There were no breaks. We knew how good this Santa Ynez team was and we couldn’t let up.”
Up next, the Spartans face a Burroughs squad that finished second in a rugged Pacific League. Burroughs has scored 53 goals in three postseason games.
The teams met in La Cañada on Sept. 13 in a game in which both squads were missing key players. La Cañada won, 17-11.
“It’s going to be a great game and they do have a great offense,” Rodriguez said. “They have a lot of scorers and a lot of people who do many things with the ball. We’re going to have to be on our ‘A’ game.”
