CLAIREMONT 11 – LA SERNA 10 OT

The Villa Park Classic is widely considered to be amongst the top high school tournaments in the country, featuring several nationally ranked teams and as well as state champions from Oregon and Texas.  Winning any games at all is an accomplishment, and our boys managed to take two throughout the three day event!  Day 1 did not go as planned though as the Captains fell 10-6 to Irvine High in the first round.  But the experience against such a physical and veteran team only helped the Clairemont boys improve throughout the weekend.  They opened up the next day with a big 13-4 win over Yorba Linda after the Caps raced out to a 6-0 first quarter lead and never looked back.  Clairemont faced a tough Coronado team that night, and despite playing arguably their best game of the season, the Captains came up just short in the end.

Not deterred after a close loss the night before, Clairemont came back strong the next morning against a well respected La Serna squad.  Neither team held more than a 2 goal advantage the entire game!  The Lancers opened up the scoring with the first goal of the game, but freshmen Ryder Sagastume answered back quickly with back to back goals to put Clairemont up for the first time.  La Serna came back with two straight goals of their own, but senior Preston Coleman netted one on a late power play to tie the game at the end of the first quarter 3-3.

The second quarter was all Clairemont, out scoring the Lancers 4-2 off four different goal scorers!  After Sagastume completed his hat trick, it was the combined efforts of Juniors Shawn Spears and Ryan Fegan as well as Sophomore Charlie Gipson that helped Clairemont claim the 7-5 lead at halftime.  But the boys could not ride that momentum into the second half, giving up three straight goals to go down 1 mere minutes into the third quarter.  Sagastume once again answered back with a pair of goals to put his team on top by 1, but the Lancers weren’t ready to lay down yet, notching another one to tie the game 9-9.  Disaster nearly struck at the end of the quarter, but a big penalty shot block by Junior Cullen Holland at the buzzer kept the game even going into the 4th.

Both sides tightened up in the 4th, only mustering one goal apiece over the final 7 minutes as a super defensive and physical battle carried over from regulation to extra time.  Late in the clock of the first OT, Sagastume stepped up looking for his 7th goal of the match and as the La Serna defense jumped out to stop him, he lofted a pass over the outstretched reach of their defender’s arms and into the waiting hand of Shawn Spears who snuck one under the goalie’s arm and into the back of the cage!  11-10 Clairemont!!  The Lancers battled like hell to tie the game back up, but some impressive goaltending from Sophomore Derek Pryor sealed the game in the end!!  Big W for the Captains!!!

UP NEXT

The Clairemont Boys Water Polo team improves to 5-7 on the season.  Up next the boys have a long break from games as the prep for their first league match.  That game will be on Wednesday September 23rd at 7pm at Miramar College.  Come out and support your CAPTAINS!!