Laguna Beach’s Reynard Keys Victory

Tyler Reynard hasn’t scored much this season for the Laguna Beach water polo team. By his inexact count, Reynard has scored about “a goal every other game.”

But Wednesday in the Southern Section Division II quarterfinals, Reynard scored twice in the fourth quarter to help the Artists rally for an 8-7 victory over La Habra at El Dorado High.

Reynard’s final goal with 1 minute remaining gave Laguna Beach its first lead since the first quarter and proved to be the game-winner. La Habra had several chances down the stretch, but Artist goalkeeper Kai Bond blocked a backhander by Eric Saul with one second left and Reynard knocked away a desperation lob pass at the buzzer.

Laguna Beach (22-7), which will play Servite in the semifinals Saturday, is this far in the playoffs for the first time since 1974, when the Artists lost the Division 3-A title game.

The Artists have reached the playoffs in each of the last six years and had never advanced beyond the second round. This time, however, as the third-seeded team, expectations were higher, and Coach Rick Scott said those expectations weighed on his team Wednesday.

“They have never been this far,” Scott said. “It’s the biggest game of their lives and they played like it. They were a little shocked and gun-shy.”

La Habra (18-9-1) took full advantage early, neutralizing Laguna Beach’s top two players, Spencer Dornin and Grant McGann.

“We came out in kind of a crashing and dropping defense,” La Habra Coach Jeff Hopkins said, “because we knew a couple of their players were reluctant to shoot.”

With La Habra swarming around Dornin or McGann at two meters, the Artists’ offense was stuck in the water. La Habra outscored the Artists 2-0 in the second quarter to take a 4-2 lead.

La Habra maintained the two-goal lead after three quarters, but Laguna Beach struck quickly in the fourth. On the first possession of the quarter, Reynard scored from eight meters.

La Habra’s Josh Drysol scored his fourth goal on a long shot of his own--from about 7 1/2 meters with about a minute later--but after that it was all Laguna Beach.

McGann scored consecutive goals from two meters--the first after rebounding his own shot that was saved by La Habra goalkeeper Shane Whittall (14 saves)--tying the score, 7-7, with 2:37 left.

Reynard took it from there. “I just saw the short clock winding down and heard my coaches saying shoot it,” Reynard said. “So I shot it and I got lucky.”

In other Division II second-round games:

Servite 14, Esperanza 13--Second-seeded Servite (23-5) trailed unseeded Esperanza (20-8) after three quarters, 9-8, but scored six fourth-quarter goals to advance.

Chris Hamme, who scored six goals, scored two of Servite’s three goals in less than two minutes to help the Friars pull ahead to stay, 12-10, with 4:48 remaining. Steve Thomas added four goals for the Friars.

Brian Mericle scored five goals, Chad Simendinger added four and goalie Matt Schoeneman had 11 saves for Esperanza.

El Dorado 8, Costa Mesa 7--The unseeded Golden Hawks (23-6) held off a late rally by the fourth-seeded Mustangs (20-7), advancing to the semifinals to play top-seeded Los Alamitos.

El Dorado’s Kendall Benson scored three of his five goals in the fourth quarter to stake El Dorado to an 8-5 lead with 1:21 remaining. But Costa Mesa’s Hunter Taylor got two of his three goals in the next minute, scoring with 32 seconds remaining to cut the lead to one.

El Dorado didn’t have to shoot with the 35-second shot clock turned off, but Benson tried to run out the clock by dumping a long pass from the Costa Mesa two-meter area back toward the El Dorado goal. But Benson’s pass went out of bounds giving Costa Mesa one last possession.

With one second remaining, Costa Mesa’s lob pass was batted down by El Dorado and the Golden Hawks escaped.

Los Alamitos 13, Buena Park 8--Junior David Kong and senior Brett Walker both scored four goals each to lead top-seeded Los Alamitos in an easy victory and advance to the semifinals.

The Griffins came out strong and maintained a strong offense, outscoring Buena Park, 12-5, at the end of the third quarter. Buena Park did try to make a comeback in the fourth quarter, scoring three of its goals, but it was too little, too late.

Tom Carey made some impressive saves for Los Alamitos (21-7), recording 15 in the game. Jared Jones was the top scorer for Buena Park, which closes the season at 14-9.