Brunton Saves Crescenta Valley in 5-4 Victory

Amy Brunton stopped a shot by Emily Caesar of Harvard-Westlake High with one second remaining and Crescenta Valley High escaped with a 5-4 girls’ water polo victory Tuesday at La Crescenta.

The Wolverines were awarded the ball at mid-pool with three seconds left. Kristin MacDonald passed to Caesar on the right wing and Brunton got an arm on Caesar’s shot, which caromed off her arm and off the left post.

“I was expecting them to use the fire-drill play where they just throw it up for grabs and someone tries to tip it in,” said Brunton, who made 13 saves. “Then, once they ran a set play, I expected No. 5 [Julie Spataru] to take the shot because she was open in the corner all game.”

It was the last in a series of near-misses for Harvard-Westlake, which saw seven of its 18 shots rattle off a post or crossbar.

“That last play worked just the way we drew it up, we just didn’t convert it,” Harvard-Westlake Coach Rich Corso said. “It was just one of those days. We did a lot of good things, we just couldn’t put the ball in the goal.”

At least not after the opening minute.

It appeared Harvard-Westlake (0-2) might be on its way to an easy victory when Kristin MacDonald scored on the Wolverines’ first two possessions.

Debra Snyder answered for Crescenta Valley (6-0) with two goals to tie the score, and Jamie Payne scored on a rebound of Snyder’s shot to give the Falcons a 3-2 lead with 1:56 left in the first quarter.

Megan Winchell’s 10-meter shot gave Crescenta Valley a 4-2 lead at halftime, then Brunton blocked a penalty shot by MacDonald early in the third quarter.

“Those kinds of plays there’s nothing really your coach can tell you,” Brunton said. “You just have to use your instincts and growl at the girl. That works every time.”

Harvard-Westlake had three man-up opportunities but managed just one shot and turned the ball over on two of them.

Spataru one-timed a pass from Courtney Quinn into the net to pull Harvard-Westlake to within 4-3, but Lauren Sheridan answered for Crescenta Valley less than a minute later.

Harvard-Westlake controlled play in the fourth quarter and MacDonald scored her third goal with 1:58 left. The Wolverines had a one-up opportunity with 34 seconds left and were moving the ball around the perimeter looking for a shot. But Caesar’s pass went out of bounds.

“We made a mistake by shooting too quickly on our last possession instead of letting time run out, but I’d rather us make mistakes now than at the end of the season,” said Coach Peter Kim of Crescenta Valley.