San Marcos had five of six players score multiple goals, and the Royals needed every one to outlast La Serna, 15-13, in a see-saw consolation-round game in the Santa Barbara Invitational boys water polo tournament on Friday.
The win came after a 11-5 loss to Laguna Beach in an earlier first-round game.
In other action, Dos Pueblos suffered two defeats, a 22-6 loss to Division 1 power Corona del Mar in the first round and a 6-4 decision against Damien High in the consolation round at the Elings Aquatic Center.
Santa Barbara also dropped two games, 14-7 to Arroyo Grande, and 18-8 against Bakersfield’s Garces Memorial in the round-robin competition at the San Marcos pool.
The top four seeds all won two games to advance to Saturday’s semifinals. No. 1 Huntington Beach beat Redlands East Valley, 18-5, and Ventura, 14-7. Second-seeded Corona del Mar followed its rout of Dos Pueblos with a 20-10 domination of Orange Lutheran.
Third-seed Mater Dei opened with a 14-7 win over Mira Costa and then held off St. Francis of Mountain View, 11-7. San Jose’s Bellarmine Prep, the fourth seed, outscored La Serna, 17-13, and held on to beat Laguna Beach, 10-7.
The semifinal match-ups have Corona del Mar facing Mater Dei at 8 a.m. and Huntington Beach taking on Bellarmine Prep at 9:05 at Santa Barbara’s pool.
The championship game is scheduled at 1:25 p.m. at Santa Barbara.
For the local schools, San Marcos plays Westlake in the ninth-place semifinals at 9:05 a.m. at Dos Pueblos; DP is home against Mira Costa at 10:10 a.m. in a 13th place semifinal; Santa Barbara completes round-robin play against San Luis Obispo at 9:05 a.m. and Crean Lutheran at 11:15.
San Marcos
The Royals and La Serna engaged in a back-and-forth battle. There were nine ties and seven lead changes in the game.
Nic Prentice scored on a rebound during a power play to create the last tie of the game (12-12) midway through the fourth period. After La Serna just missed wide on a shot, Luke Burns put the Royals ahead for good. His skip shot beat the shot clock for a 13-12 advantage.
Goalie Rich Samuel kept the Royals in front with a couple of saves before AJ Scarborough finished a pass from Jake Magid at the 2:06 mark for a two-goal lead.
Magid cinched the win with a stunning goal from mid-pool. As the Royals ran time off the clock, rather than tossing the ball into the corner of the La Serna end, Magid surprised the goalie arcing the ball over his head for a goal.
“That was not in the game plan but I’m glad it worked out,” said San Marcos coach Peera Sukavivatanachai with a smile.
The coach was pleased to see his team spread the offense.
Burns led the Royals with four goals, Prentice and Will Stuart each scored three, Magid and Alden Klein both had two goals and Scarborough had one.
“It really came down to our resiliency and fourth-quarter fitness,” said Coach Peera of his team’s ability to finish strong. “I think we had a little bit more depth than they did and that kind of helped us, especially in transition.
“We got a couple of good looks on the outside and (La Serna) had to come into a heavy drop zone on Luke Burns, so that helped us open a lot of options on the top line.”
Rich made a couple of clutch saves in the last 50 seconds.
La Serna got seven goals from center Evan Borunda.
In the first-round, San Marcos fell behind 6-1 against Laguna Beach and never recovered.
“They’re faster than us and they reacted better,” said Coach Peera. “They had five goals in the first period pretty quick.”
Dos Pueblos
The Chargers’ offense struggled in the 6-4 loss against Damien, as only three players scored.
Earlier in the day against Corona del Mar, coach Chris Parrish rotated his lineups to give his players experience against against one of the top teams in the state.
Corona del Mar had 10 players score in the game.
Senior Jaden Moore led Dos Pueblos with four goals and freshman Lucas Neushul scored two.
Santa Barbara
Lolo Russell scored six goals in the loss against Garces and had two against Arroyo Grande.
Shane Davis and Paolo Borgioli also had 2 goals in the Arroyo Grand game.