WATER POLO : NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP : Wagner’s Saves Hold California Victory Over Stanford

Second-year water polo Coach Steve Heaston knew success, having spent eight seasons as an assistant at California, the last two with national champions. But when he replaced highly regarded Pete Cutino as head coach last season, he saw Cal blow a one-goal lead in the last quarter of the NCAA championship game and lose to UC Irvine.

In the 1990 final against Stanford Sunday night at the Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach, Heaston said he thought history was going to repeat.

But three saves by part-time goalie Jim Wagner in the final 90 seconds enabled Cal to stave off a furious comeback try by Stanford and preserve an 8-7 victory. Cal won its ninth national title.

“When the fourth quarter started I had a big lump in my throat,” Heaston said. “(My assistant coach) and I looked at each other and said, ‘this can’t happen again.’ ”

It might have, without Wagner. Stanford, employing a defense that forced the Golden Bears to shoot from outside, had begun to build momentum after Cal took a 7-3 lead with 5:36 left in the third quarter.

Stanford’s Greg Morris scored 1:14 into the final period to cut Cal’s lead to 8-7.

With 1:32 left, Wagner blocked a shot by Stanford’s J.T. Matarangas. Eight seconds later, Wagner knocked a shot by Colin Keely away from the net, and with 1:05 to go, he blocked another shot from the hole by Matarangas. Rick McNair of Stanford rebounded and fired a shot off the post of the cage. Greg Olson of Stanford grabbed the ball, but Wagner knocked it out of his hand and Cal controlled.

Cal’s Chris Humbert, voted the tournament’s most valuable player said: “Overall, the game was sloppy. It was nothing to be proud of, but we got out of it with a win and that’s all that counts.”

The teams committed 17 turnovers.

“Horrible,” Heaston said. “We had a couple of big misses--you know, the excitement--and we got tight. But, maybe after all we have been through, maybe a little luck doesn’t hurt.”

This was the fifth victory by Cal (29-1) over Stanford (26-6) this year.

In other matches:

UCLA raced to an 8-3 lead and defeated UC Santa Barbara, 15-8, to take third place. The victory was the final for Bruin Coach Bob Horn, who announced his retirement Saturday night.

Pepperdine’s Eric Wood and Steve Long scored four goals apiece to lead the Waves over Air Force, 16-13, for fifth place.

Navy broke a 5-5 tie with two goals in the final quarter and then held off Brown, 7-6, for seventh place.