Royal Can’t Answer at End of Water Polo Title Game

Three unanswered goals by Righetti High in the final two minutes of the Southern Section Division IV water polo championship ended Royal’s storybook season.

Aided by two steals, top-seeded Righetti scored three goals in the final 1:46 and pulled away for its second consecutive division title, 9-6, Wednesday night at UC Santa Barbara.

No. 3 Royal (24-7) tied it, 6-6, on Ramiro Saldain’s four-meter shot with 6:23 remaining.

Two minutes later, the Highlanders appeared to take their second lead of the night on a lob shot from Saldain, which went over goalie Joel Degner’s head and floated into the mouth of the goal. But officials ruled the ball did not cross the goal line.

“I thought some of the calls should have gone our way,” Royal Coach Steve Snyder said. “That one on the goal didn’t do us any good, but then again we didn’t capitalize on the momentum shift early in the fourth.

It wasn’t a goal, but it was enough to put a scare into the Warriors. A goal by Jeremy Ballew on a power play broke the tie.

Jarod King came up with steals on Royal’s next two possessions, setting up a pair of goals by Jeremy Grubbs.

“Grubbs has been the man for them all year and tonight he proved why,” Snyder said. “He didn’t have that good a game early on, but we weren’t able to stop him when we needed to.”

Degner, the Northern League’s most valuable player, made several brilliant saves.

“I’m very proud of these kids right now,” said Righetti Coach Rob Knight.

“There’s been a lot of pressure on them because of the high ranking and their previous success, and they’ve known that. They just stepped up when it was needed.”

Ballew scored three goals for the Warriors (28-1), while two-meter standout Grubbs, who was pressured all night by Royal’s dropback defense, managed three goals.

King added two goals for the Warriors, the first team to repeat as Division IV champions in the division’s eight-year history.

Royal countered with solid performances from Derek Anderson, who scored four goals. Goalie Tom Onyshko made 10 saves.

“This was a real tough game for us, but we played very well,” Snyder said. “We knew coming in that their defense was very tough, so I was a little surprised to see our offense do as well as it did.”

Anderson’s goal three minutes into the game gave Royal its first and only lead.

The Warriors led, 5-3, at halftime.

Royal rallied in the third quarter on Anderson’s two goals, including one off a tipped pass from Ryan Vanderlei, to get within, 6-5.