Huntington Beach boys’ water polo earns big overtime win at Los Alamitos
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LOS ALAMITOS — The Huntington Beach High boys’ water polo team got some offense from an unlikely source in Wednesday’s key Sunset League game at rival Los Alamitos.
With senior standout Isaac Squires battling a shoulder issue, sophomore defender Devin Riley stepped up late.
Riley made a season-high four goals, including three in overtime for the visiting Oilers, as they pulled out a 15-14 win.
“What’s going to happen in the semis of CIF, quarters of CIF, if Isaac just has a really off day, or if Isaac just gets taken out or [fouls out]?” second-year Huntington Beach coach Nick Graffis posed. “Can we adjust? In this game, we kind of proved that we can.”
The Oilers, who have won six straight matches, improved to 14-13 overall and 4-1 in league. They have now clinched at least a third-place finish in the competitive league.
Huntington Beach can force a three-way tie for first place with a home win over top-ranked Newport Harbor (5-0 in league) on Tuesday.
“Let’s be chaos-makers, right?” Graffis said. “I think we’ve got a shot for sure … We’ve had a lot of close games against really good teams.”
Sophomore Jackson Holmes scored a match-high five goals Wednesday for Huntington Beach, which battled back after falling behind 6-3 in the first quarter. Senior Jacob Duong had three goals and three assists.
Los Alamitos, which has played for much of the season without senior standout Sebastian Mok (shoulder), still led 7-6 at halftime.
“Best first half we’ve put together against a good team,” said Griffins coach Robert Grayeli, who formerly played and coached at Costa Mesa and also coached at Laguna Beach.
Still, the Oilers led 11-9 late before Los Alamitos (8-14, 3-2) rallied. Griffins sophomore Parker Day, who had a match-high seven goals, scored twice to tie the score and send the game to overtime.
Riley scored assisted by Duong, then Holmes’ counterattack goal gave Huntington Beach a 13-11 edge in the first of two three-minute overtime periods. But Los Alamitos’ Legend Cornell and Day answered, the latter goal tying the score again with 2:27 left in the second overtime.
Riley again stepped up. His power-play goal, assisted by Duong, allowed the Oilers to retake the lead. After Holmes’ shot banged off the goalpost on the next possession, Riley’s rebound score gave Huntington Beach a 15-13 lead with 37 seconds remaining.
Noah Garrison scored for Los Alamitos on the other end, but Huntington Beach was able to run out the clock and take the victory, avenging an overtime loss to the Griffins in league last year.
“Stay cool, stay collected,” Graffis said of the state of mind that helped his team earn the victory. “Easier said than done when someone’s a 17-year-old in the middle of a battle, but that’s honestly the biggest thing we did … They went foot on the gas the entire game, and we ended up winning because we were slow, controlled, mindful. But, at the same time, maybe we overdo that sometimes. I think that was probably both our Achilles’ heel and what maybe finished off the game for us.”
Squires and fellow seniors Dane Driscoll and Adriano Maldonado added one goal each for Huntington Beach. Sophomore goalkeeper Van Johnston made 11 saves.
Graffis expects his team to earn a spot in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs. Last year, the Oilers earned a pair of close wins over Arcadia and Long Beach Wilson to make the Division 1 semifinals, where they lost at Manhattan Beach Mira Costa.
“Every game will be hard, for sure,” Graffis said. “D1 will be more exciting to me than [the] Open [Division], honestly.”
