WATER POLO ROUNDUP : El Toro Wins Villa Park Title With Late Burst

Four consecutive goals in the fourth quarter helped El Toro defeat Capistrano Valley, 11-6, for the championship of the Villa Park water polo tournament Saturday at Villa Park High School.

This is the second consecutive year that El Toro (13-0), Orange County’s No. 1-ranked team, has defeated No. 2 Capistrano Valley (10-1) for the tournament title.

Capistrano Valley narrowed El Toro’s lead to 7-5 on Jeremy Braxton-Brown’s shot with 4 minutes 40 seconds left in the match.

From that point, El Toro’s defense didn’t allow Capistrano Valley to get in position for good shots.

“Our offense was able to take decent hole shots that were tough to guard,” El Toro Coach Don Stoll said. This allowed El Toro to score four goals within 2 1/2 minutes and put the match out of reach.

Said Capistrano Valley Coach Don Cholodenko: “We showed a lack of confidence; I could see the fearful look in some of (his players’) eyes. They just weren’t confident in their ability to put the ball in the goal.

“For 21 minutes we were in striking range, but we gave them an easy goal and that was the turning point.”

The easy goal came with 3:46 left when El Toro’s Daniel Mathot got goalkeeper Steve Thornton to leave his position. Mathot scored two goals in the fourth quarter and three in the match.

In the semifinals, El Toro defeated Poway, 12-7. In that match, both head coaches were thrown off the pool deck in the first quarter.

Stoll was the first to question a referee’s call and the second to be ejected. Stoll said the referee stopped play during a Poway counterattack and warned Stoll for questioning an offensive foul against El Toro that preceded the counterattack. Poway Coach Greg Ormsby was ejected after repeatedly asking the official not to take away his team’s offensive advantage, Stoll said.

Then, when Stoll told the official that Poway now lacked a credentialed coach on the bench, he was ejected.

“It was pretty weird to see two teams playing without the captains of their ship,” Stoll said.

Mathot led the Chargers with four goals. Capistrano Valley qualified for the title by beating San Clemente, 10-5. Braxton-Brown scored five goals for Capistrano Valley. Against El Toro, Braxton-Brown had four goals.

In the third-place match:

Poway 8, San Clemente 7--James Giulianotti’s goal as time expired led Poway over the Tritons (8-3). Todd Pelkey and Tim Hornig each scored three goals for San Clemente.

In other Villa Park matches:

Esperanza 6, Foothill 4--Eric Poole scored two goals to lead Esperanza (12-2) to an upset over Foothill in the fifth-place match. Brent Palluck scored three goals for Foothill, ranked fifth in the county. Esperanza is ranked 10th.

Villa Park 9, Santa Barbara 3--Lenny Malo scored four goals as Villa Park (9-7) easily defeated Santa Barbara, the No. 1 ranked team in Division III.

Costa Mesa 16, Trabuco Hills 5--Sam Grayeli scored seven goals for Costa Mesa (9-7) in a consolation round match.

At the Canyon tournament:

Palos Verdes Peninsula 11, El Modena 9--Jason Parker scored four goals for the Vanguards in the championship match.

Canyon 12, Valencia 10--Michael Kerr scored seven goals, leading Canyon to a victory in the third-place match. Joe Ma scored two goals for Valencia.