El Dorado Beats Laguna Beach

After 25 minutes Wednesday, third-seeded Laguna Beach and El Dorado had played to a standstill, but the unseeded Golden Hawks eventually won in thrilling fashion, 15-12, scoring four goals in the final three minutes of the Southern Section Division II water polo championship game at Belmont Plaza.

Senior Kendall Benson sparked El Dorado, scoring four of his six goals in the second half. Benson scored twice in a 39-second span in the fourth quarter, breaking an 11-11 tie, then drew an ejection from Laguna Beach’s Evan Lutz with 1 minute 15 seconds remaining.

El Dorado converted the man-advantage situation when Brett Benson scored his second goal off an assist from Luke Byward, making it 14-11 with 1:07 left.

“I can’t tell you what happened in the fourth quarter because I really don’t remember,” Benson said. “We’re still just running on adrenaline. This is great.”

The victory gave El Dorado its first section title since 1987. The Golden Hawks won six titles from 1975-87, but this was the first for fourth-year Coach Michael Ashe.

“What can I say?” Ashe said. “These kids believed in themselves and felt it was their destiny.”

El Dorado (24-6) won with balance. When Laguna Beach (23-8) tried to shut down Kendall Benson, the Golden Hawks’ open man made the Artists pay. Brett Benson, Byward, Robert Sellek and Max Aguilar each scored twice, and Jacob Chung also scored from the perimeter.

El Dorado forced Laguna Beach to score from the perimeter, using a collapsing defense against Artists’ two-meter man Grant McGann, who scored only one goal.

Junior Spencer Dornin scored five goals to lead Laguna Beach, which was playing in only its second final since losing to University, 8-1, in the 1974 Division 3-A final.

“We had too many come-from-behind victories,” said Scott, whose team rallied to post one-goal victories over Katella, La Habra and Servite just to reach the final. “Maybe we just didn’t have any comebacks left.

“But we put on a great show.”

Neither team held more than a one-goal lead until the fourth quarter.

Even when El Dorado got its first two-goal lead, 11-9, with 4:14 remaining, Laguna Beach responded with goals from Dornin, on a four-meter penalty shot, and Tyler Reynard’s second goal which made it 11-11 with 2:47 remaining.

Then El Dorado made its championship push.