DIVISION IV WATER POLO : Martell Paces Los Amigos to Its First Section Title

Usually a water polo goalkeeper is at a major disadvantage in one-on-one situations.

Give a player the ball alone in front of a goalie, and more often than not the ball ends up in the back of the net.

Apparently, Los Amigos goalie Jeff Martell wasn’t informed of this. Martell’s blocks on several point-blank shots saved Los Amigos’ 11-7 victory over La Verne Bonita in the Southern Section Division IV championship match Wednesday at Belmont Plaza.

It was the first section title in any sport for Los Amigos. Four other teams from the school had reached a section final, including the Lobos’ water polo team that advanced to the 2-A title match in 1982, where they lost to Servite.

Wednesday, the top-seeded Lobos (22-7) took an early lead and then turned it over to Martell.

Martell, a 6-foot-3, 190-pound senior had 11 saves, but quality was more important than quantity in this case.

Bonita’s leading scorer, Alex Rodriguez, had three four-meter penalty shots and an open breakaway opportunity, but couldn’t score.

Martell’s first save on a penalty shot came with Los Amigos leading, 6-3, with about a minute left in the first half. After the save, Los Amigos’ Drew Douglas was ejected, giving Bonita a man-advantage opportunity, but Martell blocked a shot by Chris Temple.

Then with an 11-6 lead midway through the fourth quarter, Rodriguez hit the crossbar on a penalty shot, but was given another chance when Martell was assessed a four-meter penalty for hitting the goal.

Martell stopped the next shot and then for punctuation shook his fist at Rodriguez.

“I was being cocky, I shouldn’t have been,” Martell said. “I was giving him a rough time.”

Douglas scored five goals and Scott Simmons had three for the Lobos. Temple scored four for second-seeded Bonita (25-5).