Villa Park’s water polo drought ends with Division II title

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Villa Park has a strong water polo heritage, but the Spartans have had a long dry spell between championships.

Seeded No. 1, Villa Park defeated second-seeded Mater Dei, 6-4, at Heritage Park in Irvine to claim its first title since 1981. The Spartans have been to the finals since then, and Saturday’s victory improved their record to 2-6 in title games. The last time the Spartans were in the finals was 2004, when they were undefeated and lost to Los Alamitos, 8-7.

They trailed at halftime this year, 3-2, before rallying behind the play of Scott Brush.

Brush scored four goals while taking only six shots. Three goals came in the second half, including two in the fourth quarter to extend the Spartans’ leads to 5-3 and 5-4.

After Brush tied the score at 3-3, Josh Samuels gave Villa Park the lead for good with his only goal. Samuels, who came into the game as the Spartans’ leading scorer, was one of eight shooting.

Matt Rapacz had 12 saves for Villa Park (27-6).

Ryan Galdych scored three times for Mater Dei (26-2).

-- Martin Henderson