Dos Pueblos boys water polo will play for a CIF-SS title this weekend.
The Chargers pulled out a back-and-forth 14-11 victory over Laguna Beach in the Division 1 semifinals on Wednesday in front of a packed crowd at the Elings Aquatics Center.
Dos Pueblos, the No. 2 seed in D1, will clash with top-seeded Mira Costa for the championship on Saturday at Mt. San Antonio College. The two teams have not met this season.
“We’re gonna have to be composed and really disciplined against Mira Costa,” Charger head coach Chris Parrish said. “Like a lot of the teams that we see as we’re making the playoff run, we’re pretty much outsized, so we would have to use some finesse on the defensive end, and then our team speed to try to capitalize.
“I think we’ve got a puncher’s chance. It’s gonna be a dogfight, but if we can keep it close, we might have a chance.”
The Laguna Beach defense made the opening statement, turning away the first four DP shots of the game to build up an early 2-0 lead.
The Chargers finally broke through at the 3:54 mark of the first when Adam Gelman fed the ball into Grant Nelson, who spun around and fired a backhanded shot into the back of the net.
The Breakers responded with two unanswered goals to extend their lead to 4-1, but Dos Pueblos got the last laugh of the first.
While the Charger offense struggled to find its groove early, they ended the quarter with two goals within 40 seconds courtesy of Wyatt Warkentin and Ty Abel to cut the deficit to 4-3 heading into the second.
“[Laguna Beach] put the fear of God in us in the first quarter,” Parrish said of his team’s slow start.
DP carried that momentum over on both ends of the pool, as Koa Zertuche made a series of stops while Nelson scored again to even the score at 4-4 with 5:42 left in the half.
The Chargers continued to roll, as Channing Wigo scored in transition and Warkentin fired in a goal from the outside to take a 6-4 lead with 2:16 on the clock.
However, Laguna Beach didn’t go away quietly and scored back-to-back goals to bring the game square at 6-6 heading into halftime.
As they did in the second, the DP defense took full control of the game early in the third quarter by turning stops into quick offense on the other end.
The Chargers struck first on a transition opportunity off a stop, as Warkentin drew a 5-meter penalty in transition and Wigo buried the shot to take a 7-6 lead at the 5:20 mark.
On the next possession, Wigo came up with an impressive left-handed field block and quickly followed that up with a left-handed shot past the Laguna goalie to extend the lead to 8-6.
“The funniest thing is that [Wigo] is right-handed; he goes down and makes a left-handed shot block, swims all the way down and scores a left-handed shot out of center. I thought, ‘Oh my god, maybe he is left-handed,’” Parrish said.
Dos Pueblos then took its largest lead of the night with 2:10 left in the third when it got a defensive stop and goalie Koa Zertuche lofted a pass down to Nelson, who scored to make it 9-6.
“We knew that they had a couple of key components to their team that were going to be difficult to contend with,” Parrish said. “Number 11 (Warren Rootlieb) is a special player, and he was wreaking havoc in the game… that was rough
“As soon as we were able to limit his looks in the center, and then kind of push the pace of the game, I think we generated some opportunities. Our transition just really started opening up. It wasn’t every possession, but it seemed like every third possession we were getting a really good look on goal.”
The Breakers once again ended the quarter strong, however, scoring two unanswered goals to trim the DP lead down to 9-8 with one quarter to play.
After a bit of a scoring drought to begin the fourth, the Chargers got some breathing room when Warkentin dished off a pass to Wigo, who scored to make it 10-8 with 4:55 left.
Laguna Beach answered back with a goal at the 3:09 mark to bring it back to a one-score game, but Warkentin responded by scoring as the shot clock expired to take an 11-9 lead and send a spark through the home crowd.
The seesaw action continued as Laguna Beach scored on its next possession, but the Chargers punched back with an outside goal by Nelson to bring the lead back to two at 12-10 with 1:57 remaining.
That score held for the next minute, and Nelson buried two more goals to put the cherry on top of the win and send Dos Pueblos into the CIF-SS finals.
“We made a little push to come back in the first quarter to put us in position to make another run, and then, we won the last three quarters, which is big. The key was the defense,” Parrish said.
Nelson had six goals to pace the Chargers, while Wigo scored four goals and Warkentin scored three. Abel dished out three assists, while Nelson and Wigo had two apiece.
