Villa Park Works Overtime to Beat Capistrano Valley

Danee French scored five goals and Cindy Henn scored the only goal in overtime to help Villa Park, ranked fourth in Orange County, escape with a 9-8 victory over sixth-ranked Capistrano Valley in a nonleague girls’ water polo game Tuesday at Villa Park High.

Villa Park reached overtime after Shari Meyer scored off an assist from French with 14 seconds remaining in regulation to convert a six-on-five situation and tie the score, 8-8.

Henn scored her third goal with 2 minutes 10 seconds remaining in the second half of overtime to provide the winning margin for Villa Park (7-3).

Villa Park’s defense held Capistrano Valley junior Amber Stachowski, who had five goals, to one shot in overtime.

“Amber was a little out of sync today,” Capistrano Valley Coach Jason Lynch said. “I thought they played well in the first half and we played well in the second half.”

Capistrano Valley (2-2) trailed, 6-2, with 5:19 remaining in the third quarter before it rallied by scoring six goals in the next 10 1/2 minutes.

Xina Gleason’s goal from eight meters pulled the Cougars even, 7-7, with 2:33 remaining in the fourth quarter then Stachowski scored a minute later after stealing the ball from Villa Park goalie Cara Colton and scoring to make it 8-7.

Capistrano Valley’s freshman goalie Meridith McColl, who had 10 saves, tried to preserve the lead, stopping a shot by Villa Park senior Kristyn Pulver on a six-on-five situation with one minute remaining.

But the Spartans got one last chance and cashed it in even though Pulver, the team’s leading scorer, did not have a goal Tuesday. Pulver did draw a foul that resulted in one of the Spartans’ three four-meter penalty shots.

“We know teams focus on Kristyn,” said French, who scored on the three four-meter penalty shots and twice on shots from the perimeter. “But I think it works to our advantage and we’ll have more open shots.