La Habra captures victory over Canyon to keep league championship hopes alive

La Habra’s boys water polo team celebrate’s Tuesday’s league win. (PHOTO: Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone).

Garrett Carty scored five goals and Luke Magana and Logan Fernandez added four goals each to lead La Habra’s boys water polo team to a 17-12 Crestview League victory over Canyon Tuesday afternoon at Canyon.

The Highlanders win sets up a match with Foothill (15-7, 3-0) next Tuesday for the league title at La Habra. La Habra is 18-7 overall and 3-0 in league.

Carty scored two first quarter goals and the Highlanders jumped out to a 5-2 lead after seven minutes.

Duncan McKenzie, Grady Abel, and Carter Johnson’s strong defense helped spark La Habra’s offense in the second quarter.

The Highlanders outscored the Cobras 7-1 in the quarter and took a commanding 12-3 lead at halftime. The trio of McKenzie, Abel and Johnson forced several turnovers and goalkeeper Jude Muci turned back multiple shots as the Highlanders seemed to be firing on all cylinders.

Carty scored three times in the quarter and Gonzales added two goals to pace La Habra.

Gonzales scored three goals in the third quarter and Magana added two goals in the final quarter to close out the win for the Highlanders. Canyon (15-8, 1-2) played much more aggressively in the second half and play got chippy at times but the Cobras weren’t able to draw any closer than five goals in the second half.

“This is a hard pool to play at,” said La Habra Coach Mitch Carty. “The pool is smaller and play gets much more physical and we fell victim to that in the second half. But we got the win and we look forward to playing Foothill at home next Tuesday for the league championship.”

“We’re excited to play Foothill for a league championship next week,” said Magana a senior center. “This is what we’ve worked hard for all season. We just need to get dialed in and play our game.”