Flintridge Prep can’t contain Webb’s Budekin

LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE — The Flintridge Prep girls’ water polo team ran into a one-man wrecking crew in the form of Webb’s Emma Budekin Friday.

Budekin scored more than half of her team’s goals in a 15-5 Prep League win over the Rebels.

Prep Coach Ryan Goto said Budekin, who had a game-high eight goals, was so effective because she had so much more experience.

“We just didn’t have anybody that could match up with [Budekin] in terms of skill,” Goto said. “We have a lot of new players to the sport versus people who have been playing club for years. They are just learning how to defend players like that.”

Webb (8-9, 3-4 in league) first got on the board 19 seconds into the contest on a Budekin goal for a 1-0 lead. Kate Woolley notched Prep’s first goal with a 1:19 left in the first quarter to cut Webb’s lead to 2-1, but Budekin scored 15 seconds later to push the Gauls edge to 3-1 before the second period.

Goals were hard to come by for the Rebels (5-6, 3-6), as they got 22 shots off and 16 on target, but few truly tested Webb’s goalie Andi Phillips, who had 13 saves. Prep also committed 21 turnovers in the game.

Goto said the defense is where the Rebels really got hurt, though.

“I feel like we just didn’t adapt on defense as well as we should have,” he said. “We should have realized they were going to play off and release early and our defenders just couldn’t catch them at that point.”

Prep’s Katrina Boyd put a shot past Phillips with 2:10 left before halftime to cut her team’s deficit to 5-2.

The Gauls shut the Rebels out in the third period while scoring five of their own — three coming from Budekin — to push their lead to 10-2.

Things started improving for Prep offensively in the final period, as it scored three goals in the final seven minutes.

Flintridge Prep’s Arin Phillips scored a five-meter goal with 5:15 left in the game to cut the score to 11-3. The Rebels’ Suzanna Tan, who had two goals, scored on a six-on-five opportunity two minutes later to bring the score to 12-4 and again with 41 seconds remaining to bring the score to 14-5.