SOUTHERN SECTION WATER POLO CHAMPIONSHIP : Sunny Hills Beats Whittier La Serna, Advances to Finals

Sunny Hills defeated Whittier La Serna, 10-6, in a Division II water polo semifinal Friday night at Belmont Plaza to advance to the Southern Section championship game for the first time in five years.

The Lancers have a fine water polo pedigree, with four section titles since 1970, but they hadn’t advanced past the semifinals since Coach Keith Nighswonger took over in 1989.

“This is my first time in the finals so it means a lot to me, obviously,” Nighswonger said. “It’s important because I want to see the program stay at the level it was when I took over.”

Everything looked fine Friday as second-seeded Sunny Hills (24-8) took control in the second half and pulled away from La Serna (22-9).

Sunny Hills outscored La Serna, which has made semifinals the last six seasons and now has lost the last two, 4-1 in the third quarter to take an 8-4 lead.

La Serna made it 8-5 early in the fourth quarter but the Sunny Hills defense clamped down and gave up only one more goal, a consolation goal to Andy Walburger with 28 seconds left. Walburger, who scored more than 100 goals this season, was held to two goals.

Carlo Franzia scored three and David Farkas and Justin Brechtel each scored two for Sunny Hills, which will play Riverside Poly for the title at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Belmont Plaza.

In the other Division II semifinal:

Riverside Poly 15, Esperanza 14--Top-seeded Riverside Poly (30-3) avenged a loss to fourth-seeded Esperanza (20-12) in the final last season, holding off the Aztecs in a game that was tied 10 times. Esperanza had a chance to tie the score in the final seconds but an outside shot by Brian Bruns hit the crossbar.

Bruns and Ian Ching each scored five goals for the Aztecs. Eliot Despins and Brian Brown each scored four for the Bears, who have lost to Foothill, Corona del Mar and Newport Harbor this season.