Taking Charge at End, Agoura Advances, 12-11

Agoura High came out charged up, then Dos Pueblos charged back.

But when Agoura’s Noah Cirincione scored with 11 seconds left to give his team a 12-11 victory in a Southern Section Division IV quarterfinal game at Agoura High, teams that share Chargers as a nickname were all charged out.

Cirincione fired a shot that Dos Pueblos goalie Ryan Lucas stopped and gathered up. Cirincione, who said it was desperation move, chased Lucas to the side of the goal and attacked instead of retreating to play defense--which is normal water polo procedure.

And with every other player in the water sprinting toward the Agoura end of the pool, Cirincione knocked the ball away from Lucas, positioned himself in front of the empty Dos Pueblos goal and fired in the game-winner.

“I knew there were only a few seconds left,” Cirincione said. “I just reacted.”

Agoura (18-7) will face Cabrillo, a 21-4 winner over Buena, in Saturday’s semifinal at a time and location to be determined today.

“We got kind of lucky on that last goal,” Agoura Coach Jason Rosenthal said with a smile. “I don’t know what possessed [Cirincione] to go after the goalie, but he did it at the right time.”

Agoura’s Raj Chudasma scored the only goal of the first 4 minutes 41 seconds of the fourth quarter to give his team a 10-7 lead. But in an intense span of 2:19 to end the game, the teams scored six goals for a flurried and thrilling finish.

Dos Pueblos (17-9) got goals from Dave Wilson and Chris Segesman to pull within 10-9 with 1:52 remaining.

Noah Bookman answered for Agoura, scoring on a power-play 23 seconds later.

But Segesman, who had six goals, scored with 1:07 left to play, then made a key steal on Agoura’s ensuing attack.

After a timeout, Segesman received a pass close to the Agoura goal and fired a shot past lunging goalie Joey Smither to tie the score, 11-11, with 27 seconds remaining.

“It was a little chaotic,” Rosenthal said of the finish. “We were up, 10-7, then all of a sudden it’s tied.”

Adding to the chaos was the fact that Agoura did not run the play Rosenthal called in the waning moments.

Instead of setting up at the two-meter position as he was supposed to, Cirincione leaked off to the right side of the goal. When he got he ball, he was out of position for the shot but fired anyway and Lucas made the save.

In the first quarter, Cirincione made the same type of play against Lucas, stealing the ball from him in front of the net and scoring to pull Agoura even, 2-2.

In the second quarter, Mitch Dexter did the same to give Agoura its first lead, 3-2.

Agoura pulled out to a 6-2 lead on Jeremy Rode’s breakaway goal with 3:01 left in the first half, but Dos Pueblos narrowed the margin to 7-4 by halftime.

Bookman had three goals for Agoura, two on penalty shots. Dexter, Chudasma and Cirincione each had two.

Despite the thrilling finish to the game, Cirincione was unfazed and had his thoughts on just one thing.

“This was not the most intense game of the season,” he said. “Saturday and the final will be more intense. That’s where we want to be.”

After a couple to days to recharge their batteries.