San Clemente Will Get Its Shot at Long Beach Wilson

Fourth-seeded San Clemente turned back a strong challenge from Villa Park and defeated the Spartans, 12-8, in the quarterfinals of the Southern Section Division I boys’ water polo playoffs Tuesday at Villa Park.

The score was tied at the end of each of the first three quarters, but the Tritons (20-7) outscored the Spartans (17-11), 4-0, in the fourth to earn a shot at top-seeded Long Beach Wilson (15-0) in the semifinals Saturday.

“They haven’t been defeated yet,” San Clemente senior Cameron Thom said. “We want to do it.”

Thom had a lot to do with San Clemente’s victory Tuesday. A two-meter defender and not usually one of the Tritons’ leading scorers, Thom had four goals.

He started slowly, missing his first three shots but didn’t miss another. “I tried to take a little off my shots and it started working for me,” Thom said.

His third goal, with five seconds left in the third quarter, tied the score, 8-8. His fourth came 30 seconds into the fourth quarter off a pass from Jared McDaniel. Thirty seconds later, San Clemente sophomore Josh Hewko got behind his defender on a counter attack and made it 10-8. Goals by sophomore Pat McCann--with 3 minutes 45 seconds and 48 seconds remaining--put the victory away.

The Spartans tied the score in the waning seconds of the first and second quarters. In the first, Shane Joffe’s skip shot from 10 meters out slipped out of San Clemente goalkeeper Craig Smith’s hands with two seconds remaining to make it 1-1. In the second, senior Nick Pacelli tied the score, 5-5, with eight seconds left. Pacelli took a pass at two meters and battling Hewko, popped the ball over Hewko’s head and ducked around the San Clemente defender to free himself for the shot.

Pacelli, who had a game-high five goals, then scored three consecutive goals in the third quarter to give the Spartans their only lead, 8-7, with 25 seconds left.

In other Division I games:

Foothill 8, Newport Harbor 7--Wess Fox’s goal with 2:15 left in the game gave Foothill (18-9) an 8-6 lead as the Knights upset second-seeded Newport Harbor.

Newport Harbor (21-5) rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the first quarter to tie the score, 3-3, on Kevin Becker’s score with 1:36 left in the second quarter.

Foothill took a 6-5 lead on Blake Seymour’s goal in the fourth, and held a one-goal lead for the rest of the game. Foothill plays North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake in the semifinals on Saturday.

Long Beach Wilson 16, Corona del Mar 7--Tony Azevedo scored four of his six goals in Wilson’s seven-goal first quarter. Jason Palda had three goals and Garrett Gentry had two for Corona del Mar.

North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake 6, El Toro 5--Peter Hudnut scored the winner with 5:54 left in the game. El Toro came out strong in the fourth quarter with goals by Tim Craycraft and Andy Terpstra to tie the score, 5-5. But after Hudnut’s go-ahead goal Harvard-Westlake (21-4) and goalie Joe Axelrod shut down the Chargers (21-8), who scored only one goal while in six man-up advantages during the game.