Laguna Beach boys’ water polo will face rival Huntington Beach for CIF title
Last year’s semifinal defeat to Foothill had been a driving force for Laguna Beach’s boys water polo team all season, and now, 364 days later, it was happening again.
The Knights, who had romped to a big lead en route to a one-goal victory in the CIF Southern Section final four last year, scored on three of their first four possessions in Wednesday evening’s Division 1 showdown to take a quick advantage.
Camron Hauer couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?’” the Breakers head coach said. “Not again.”
Nope, not this time. Second-seeded Laguna Beach, calm and confident, answered right away, had a lead before the first quarter was done, then fought gamely in a back-and-forth battle to the finish, using defensive dominance down the stretch for a 12-11 overtime triumph that sets up a title-game face off Saturday with Surf League rival Huntington Beach at Mt. San Antonio College.
Top-seeded Huntington Beach beat Mira Costa 13-7 in the other semifinal behind a team-high three-goals from senior Christian Hammonds.
Cade Anderton scored four goals — three during the first-quarter response — assisted three more and played the pivotal role on defense as the visiting Breakers (18-12) held No. 3 Foothill (17-12) scoreless for nearly the entirety of the fourth quarter and six minutes of overtime.
Diego Audebert scored four times with an assist, Gavin Goode netted two goals — including the finale, with 1:12 left in the extra period, to seal the win — and Dylan Williams and Matthew Schlaich added goals. Schlaich’s near the midpoint of overtime provided a lead that would hold.
“We were ready,” said Anderton, a Pepperdine-bound senior guard who was key in Laguna Beach’s bid to harass Knights standouts Corbin Stanley and Will Griswold, the latter a returning All-CIF attacker. “We wanted them the whole year. Last year we got way too excited before the game, and we were too hyped, so when we got into the game, we were really tired, [had] come out too hard.
“This game was all about composure and staying calm, so even when they went up, 3-0, we stayed calm. We knew it was a long game and we could bring it back ... We got a little scared [after falling behind], but if you stay calm, it all works out.”
In last year’s semifinal, Foothill held on for a 6-5 triumph over the top-seeded Breakers after taking a 6-1 lead. The Knights lost in the title game to Orange Lutheran.
“It gave us motivation,” Audebert said. “Ever since last year, we’ve been thinking about that game against Foothill, and we were like, ‘Never again.’ So we were really excited to [match up again], and I’m really happy we won.”
The reward is the first trip since 2016 to the final, where Laguna Beach will seek its fourth title and first in nine years.
It’s the fifth encounter this year with top seed Huntington Beach (20-10). The Oilers won three of the first four, all by four or five goals: in the South Coast Tournament in mid-September, the first of two league meetings four days later, and in the playoff two weeks ago for the Surf League’s second automatic playoff berth after both finished 3-3 and behind Open Division finalist Newport Harbor.
Laguna Beach did pull out a 13-12 road win in Surf League play Oct. 11.
“It’s been a close game every time, so I’m not expecting anything different,” Audebert said. “But we’ve been playing well, we’ve been playing better than we ever have, so I think we can come out with it if we play hard. It won’t be easy.”
Hauer credited his team’s fitness and resolve for its command through the final dozen minutes or so Wednesday.
“We’ve always been a really condition-first program, so we swim a lot, and I think that really, really helped,” he said. “I think we were calm, cool and composed the whole time, and sometimes you get really ramped up. We had to burn through a lot of energy, and I don’t think we ever had that moment where my team looked gassed.”
Foothill took its big lead in the first two and a half minutes or so, with Corbin (four goals) and Griswold (three) netting the first two goals. It took a slightly shorter span for the Breakers to pull even — Anderton firing off the crossbar with a man advantage, feeding Williams’ near-post finish, then scoring from the hole — and Anderton provided a short-lived lead on a penalty shot with 19 seconds left in the first quarter.
The Knights, through Stanley, made it 4-4 in the final seconds of the quarter, but Audebert’s audacious mid-second quarter lob from the left flank into the bottom right corner of the cage gave Laguna Beach the halftime lead. The back-and-forth went on the rest of the way.
Foothill went ahead three times, extending the edge to two goals — at 10-8 — on Brody Metz’s tally 20 seconds into the fourth quarter. But the Knights wouldn’t score again for more than 12½ minutes, the last 6:40 of the final quarter — as Laguna Beach pulled even on goals by Goode and Audebert (on an abrupt-angle blast off the right post) — and until six seconds remained in overtime, the outcome no longer in question.
The Knights, struggling to get the ball inside, managed just eight shots in that span. Only three required Laguna goalkeeper Tyler Swensen to make a save, while Foothill also committed 10 turnovers — six on their first seven possessions in overtime. Schlaich scored the go-ahead goal, from Eli Taub’s assist, with 43 seconds left in the first period of overtime, and it was effectively over after a Foothill giveaway moments after Goode’s late strike.
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