La Canada Struggles in the Stretch

La Canada goalie Russell Bernstein kept the Spartan water polo team close in its Division III quarterfinal game against El Segundo on Tuesday, but close just wasn’t good enough as the Eagles squeaked out a 6-4 victory at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center.

Bernstein made the first of his 14 saves on Kyle Martin’s penalty shot early in the first quarter, and made several other spectacular saves on close-range shots.

But the Spartans relied on Bernstein a bit too much.

Trailing, 5-4, with 44 seconds to play, Spartan defender Donald Kwon fouled Jack Siadek on a breakaway. The result was a Jon Puffer penalty shot that skipped just beneath the reach of Bernstein and into the lower left corner of the goal to clinch the victory.

“I thought I was going to block it,” a dazed Bernstein said after the game. “I had it.”

The Spartans (14-15) had three power-play opportunities in the first five minutes of the game and did not score on any of them. In all, they converted on just one of five man-advantage situations.

“We tend to start slow,” Spartan Coach Larry Naeve said. “We played well after [the first quarter] but we just didn’t capitalize on our opportunities.

The Eagles (22-6) used their speed advantage and repeatedly got behind the Spartan defense for scoring opportunities in the first half. If not for Bernstein’s play, the Eagles’ 3-1 lead at halftime would have been much more.

“Russell played one of his better games today,” Naeve said. “He keeps us in these kinds of games sometimes. He forces things to happen and good things happen sometimes.”

The Spartans tied the game, 4-4, when Brian Ahn scored with 1:30 left in the third quarter. A minute later, Martin scored his second goal on a power play for a 5-4 lead.

Charles Chang, Michael McDay and Kwon also scored for the Spartans. Puffer had four goals for El Segundo.

Foothill 9, Harvard-Westlake 4--Phil Spataru scored three goals, but the Wolverines (17-6) lost a Division I quarterfinal game for the third consecutive season.

Don Kim also had a goal for Harvard-Westlake.

Harvard-Westlake pulled to within 5-4 after three quarters, but the second-seeded Knights (25-2) scored four unanswered goals in the fourth.

Bell Gardens 17, Crescenta Valley 7--The Falcons lost a Division III quarterfinal to the top-seeded Lancers at Rio Hondo College.