PREP ROUNDUP : Fountain Valley Wins on Horn’s Late Goal

Ofer Horn scored on a breakaway with eight seconds remaining to give Fountain Valley’s water polo team a 7-6 Sunset League victory over Marina Wednesday night at Golden West College.

Horn, a senior, had four goals as the Barons improved to 20-5 and 6-0 in league. He scored his first two back-to-back, with 2:32 and 2:15 in the second quarter, helping Fountain Valley take a 4-2 lead at half.

Matt Braun, who had scored on a four-meter shot in the second quarter, scored for Marina with 3:32 remaining in the third quarter. Horn restored the margin at 5-3 on an unassisted shot inside two meters with 14 seconds left in the third quarter.

“We were trying to do everything to score,” Fountain Valley Coach Ray Bray said. “We tried to capitalize on our opportunities. Our maturity, enthusiasm and team spirit came through.”

The Barons’ lead grew to three when Ryotaro Kinno scored with an assist from Robert Causee in the first 30 seconds of the final quarter. Marina then had three consecutive goals, by Justin Macklin (4:37), Paul Liegeois (3:05) and Jon Kenyon (2:10) to tie the score, 6-6, before Horn got the game-winner.

“Marina has tremendous speed and was beating us in counter-attacks,” Bray said. “But we had experienced players covering up for us.”

“Overall, it was a game that I don’t think either team wanted to lose,” Marina Coach Dave Pickford said. “But later in the game, everybody realized (only) one team was going to win.”

Both teams scored in the first minute. Brian Akian scored for Marina (16-8, 5-1) with 5:37 in the first quarter. Eric Setterquist countered for Fountain Valley off Eric Best’s assist 23 seconds later.

Dennis Kantanen, a senior goalie, had 14 saves for Fountain Valley.