LC’s league title hopes ebb

La Cañada boys’ water polo could only watch Tuesday afternoon as South Pasadena held possession with 13 seconds left in the second half of overtime and an 8-7 lead.

The Tigers beat the Spartans at South Pasadena, 8-7 in overtime, in a tightly contested match with a few lead changes that drastically altered the Rio Hondo League landscape and may have cost La Cañada a chance at a sixth consecutive RHL title. Had the Spartans won, they would have had a two-game lead over SoPas and Temple City with three RHL games to play.

It was the first time South Pasadena (14-6, 4-1) beat La Cañada (7-14, 4-1) in seven years.

La Cañada Head Coach German Lopez was visibly upset after the game.

“They got lucky,” Lopez said. ‘On three different occasions, the clocks were stopped on their power play and they sat on it.”

Lopez admitted he was unhappy with his team’s performance as well.

“We didn’t play well,” Lopez said. “We missed a lot of shots. We started a lot of sophomores and we looked like a young team, but I’m not stressing it.”

South Pasadena jumped out to the early lead, 2-1, after the first quarter. Midway through the second quarter, Sean Grab and Evan McCarthy made it 4-2.

But La Cañada’s Bo Mattix and Justin Lee countered with a goal each, Lee’s with 2:30 left in the quarter, to tie it heading into the half.

Lee scored the first goal of the half from seven yards out to give the Spartans a 5-4 lead, but Grab responded immediately to tie it again.

Tigers senior Grant Quon scored his lone goal of the game from 15 yards out with 3:43 left in the fourth quarter to take the lead at 7-6.

But Mattix threw the Spartans back into it with a tying goal from five meters out with 2:15 left.

Into overtime, neither team scored in the first half despite some good opportunities—thanks to some amazing saves by La Cañada’s Aria Mahboubi and South Pasadena’s Dominque Tache.

With 1:51 left in the second half of overtime, Grab again made a big impression, scoring his third and final goal of the game to give the Tigers an 8-7 lead.

La Cañada put together one last good chance with 23 seconds left, but Tache made a brilliant save to win the game.

Mattix and Lee led the Spartans with two goals each.

“Teamwork and defense got us the win today,” said South Pasadena’s Quon. “We were ‘crushing the set’ on defense and moving the ball well on offense. This was the first time we’ve beaten La Cañada in seven years. This year’s our turn.”

La Cañada had a big win over Righetti over the weekend, 11-5. Mahboubi had 10 blocks in the game and Christian Renfro had three goals. But LC lost to Damien over the weekend as well, 10-2.

La Cañada and South Pasadena are now tied in league records, which, if they both win outright, would mean they would tie for the league title.

La Cañada next big game is against Temple City, who has lost both their games against South Pasadena this year, at Temple City on Nov. 3.

For the record: An earlier draft of this story reported South Pasadena water polo player Sean Grab scored three goals in the game. He actually scored five.