THE PREPS : Southern Section Water Polo : El Dorado Surprises, Wins in 3-A

El Dorado High School won its third straight Southern Section 3-A water polo championship Saturday, defeating Los Alamitos, 9-7, at Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach.

This was not supposed to happen.

El Dorado, which had been favored the previous two years in the final, came into Saturday’s match as an underdog to Los Alamitos, which had beaten El Dorado in two previous matches.

El Dorado (17-12) entered the playoffs as the Empire League’s No. 2 representative behind--guess who--Los Alamitos.

“Everyone said we couldn’t do it,” said Tom Milich, El Dorado coach. “We didn’t win the league title and didn’t have a winning record. So, the pressure was off in this game. We weren’t supposed to be here.”

Talk about pressure to Steve Kidder, El Dorado’s leading scorer this season, who was ejected from the match with three personal fouls in the third quarter. When Kidder left with 3:35 remaining in the third quarter and El Dorado trailing, 6-4, the game appeared to be over to some, including Kidder.

“I couldn’t watch. I thought that might be the end for us,” he said.

But Scott Fairchild went on to score three of his game-high five goals in the next two minutes to put El Dorado ahead, 7-6, with 59 seconds to play in the third quarter.

Milich, describing Fairchild’s scoring technique, concluded: “Scott went nuts.”

Los Alamitos (27-5) tied the score at 7-7 on a goal by Erik Lynch with 21 seconds left in the third quarter.

Lynch scored two goals in the game; Jon Wimbish led the Griffins with three goals.

But Los Alamitos was shut out in the fourth quarter.

El Dorado’s Mark Jordan scored less than a minute into the fourth quarter to give the Golden Hawks an 8-7 lead.

Fittingly, it was Fairchild who closed out the scoring, hitting a shot from about nine meters out.