La Canada Doomed in Third

La Canada High water polo Coach Larry Naeve may still be standing next to the pool, shaking his head and wondering what happened in the third quarter of his team’s 12-11 nonleague loss at Bell Gardens High on Tuesday.

The Spartans, ranked No. 1 in Southern Section Division III, outscored No. 2 Bell Gardens in the first, second and fourth quarters.

They built a 7-4 lead at halftime and seemingly had command and momentum in a game with the intensity of the playoffs.

Then the third quarter happened.

Bell Gardens (20-3) outscored La Canada, 6-0. The Spartans (17-5) managed only four shots in the quarter, two of which were deflected by field players before even reaching Bell Gardens goalie Juan Esquivel. They had seven turnovers.

“The third quarter killed us,” Naeve said. “We went to sleep. Sometimes we play a hot third quarter and sometimes we don’t. Today we didn’t protect the ball.”

The Spartans trailed, 10-7, starting the fourth quarter. They pulled to within 11-10 with 1:12 remaining when Brendan Naeve scored two of his four goals in one minute.

Michael McDay then tied it at 11 when he broke into the Lancer defense, turned defender Brenda Villa around, and fired past Esquivel to the upper right corner with 46 seconds to play.

But Joe Gonzalez, who had three steals at the two-meter position for the Lancers during the third quarter, blasted a 30-foot shot past La Canada goalie Russell Bernstein nine seconds later for the game-winner.

Bernstein’s desperation shot from mid-pool as time expired was stopped by Esquivel.

“I don’t feel bad about losing,” McDay said. “We’re going to see them again. In the third quarter we were a little tired and we weren’t playing like we usually do.”

Brian Ahn had three goals for the Spartans and Brandon Goode had two. Bernstein had seven saves.

The Lancers, two-time defending Division III champions, defeated La Canada, 7-5, earlier this season in the Bell Gardens tournament final.

“This was just a game, nobody wins anything,” Larry Naeve said. “I’d be upset if we lost by four or five goals, but this could have gone either way. Now we want to play them in the final, that’s what we’ve wanted all year.”

The Bell Gardens victory likely means that the merry-go-round atop the Division III rankings will continue.

Four teams have held the top spot in eight weeks. Bell Gardens began the season No. 1 and remained there for three weeks. Crescenta Valley and Mira Costa each took over for a week and La Canada has been No. 1 for the past three weeks.