La Canada Gets a Grip on Title, 7-6

Amid the chaos of La Canada High’s celebration sat goalie Russell Bernstein, quiet and alone.

The Spartans had just won the Southern Section Division III water polo championship with a 7-6 victory over two-time defending champion Bell Gardens at the Belmont Plaza pool.

The celebration, which included throwing coaches into the pool, was in full swing. But Bernstein sat with a tight grip on the game ball, staring at the patch just given to him by Southern Section assistant commissioner Bill Clark. The patch documented Bernstein’s status as a Southern Section champion.

“I still have the tournament rushing through me,” he said. “I just can’t believe it yet. It’s like a dream and I hope it never ends.”

Bernstein, who had 10 saves, said none was sweeter than the final one. Bell Gardens two-meter man Joe Gonzalez fired a long-range shot that Bernstein blocked with two hands as time expired.

La Canada claimed its first water polo championship since 1979, also under Coach Larry Naeve.

Naeve left his coaching position in 1980 so he could spend more time with newborn son Brendan. He took the job back when Brendan, now a senior, started playing for La Canada three years ago.

“This is so much a different thing,” Larry Naeve said. “It’s totally different when your own kid grabs you, tells you he loves you then grabs you and throws you in the pool and says, ‘We did it.’ ”

La Canada, which trailed, 4-2, at halftime, took its first lead, 7-6, when junior Charles Chang fired a 15-foot shot past Bell Gardens goalie Ivan Esquivel with 4:10 to play.

Then Bernstein and the Spartan defense took over.

Bernstein had four saves in the last four minutes, including two when Bell Gardens had a 6-on-5 advantage. He made a risky play by coming out of the goal to steal the ball from Brenda Villa at the two-meter position with less than 30 seconds to go.

But the final stop was all Bernstein could remember.

“It was like slow motion,” he said. “It felt really good, really solid to block that shot.”

He let out an emotional holler and carried the ball with him throughout the post-game festivities.

“I’m sleeping with this ball and going to school with it,” Bernstein said. “I’m never going to let it go. Well, I’m going snowboarding this weekend so maybe I’ll put it down then.”

La Canada wore down Bell Gardens, which defeated the Spartans in a smaller pool twice this season.

Counter-attack opportunities, virtually nonexistent in the first half, surfaced in the third quarter.

Chang was fouled on one such opportunity and capitalized by converting a four-meter penalty shot. Michael McDay took a pass from Brian Ahn on a counter attack 47 seconds later to tie the game, 6-6, with 1:20 left in the third quarter.

“We thought we could do this in a bigger pool,” Naeve said. “We felt really confident we were in better shape than them.”