La Habra captures thrilling non-league victory over Buena with goal in final second -

La Habra was led (from left) by Luke Magana, Jude Muci, Logan Fernandez, Garrett Carty and Caleb Gonzales in the win over Buena. (PHOTOS: Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone).

Sophomore Logan Fernandez scored with less than one second remaining in the match to lift the La Habra boys water polo team to a 16-15 victory over Buena of Ventura in nonleague match Thursday afternoon at La Habra.

Garrett Carty scored five goals and Caleb Gonzales added four goals for the Highlanders, who won their seventh consecutive match. Paolo Del Nagro scored five goals and Austin Martinez and Tony Bruno each added three goals for Buena (2-1).

In the fourth quarter, Carty broke a 14-14 tie with a goal with 44 seconds remaining.

Buena quickly countered with a tying goal by Del Nagro with 28 seconds left. La Habra then set up the final play. Highlanders’ goalkeeper Jude Muci held the ball at the mid-pool area as time winded down. He passed the ball to Gonzales in the middle who swung the ball to Carter Johnson in the corner.

Johnson then pinpointed a cross-pool pass to Fernandez who blasted a shot past the Bulldogs goalkeeper for the winning tally.

“I knew the ball was coming to me on the final play and I was a little nervous, but then I remembered all of the reps and practice we’ve done,” said Fernandez, a sophomore who scored two goals in the match. “They were definitely one of the best teams we’ve played all season. This is a great win for us and we feel we can go far in CIF.”

La Habra Coach Mitch Carty said the win was an important victory for his team (12-5).

“It was electric to see a sophomore score the winning goal,” said Carty. “We’ve been working hard on our counterattack and our spacing this season and things are coming together. Buena is a very good team and they play in the Channel Islands League which is very competitive, so this is a very important win for our program.”

Neither team was able to build more than a two goal advantage throughout the match. La Habra led 4-3 lead after the first quarter.

Carty’s goal, on an outstanding pass from Carter Johnson, at the 3:06 mark of the second quarter upped the Highlanders lead to 7-5. However, Buena responded with three consecutive goals to take a 8-7 lead. But Gonzalez scored with four seconds left in the quarter to tie the match at 8-8 at halftime.

Fernandez, Johnson, Gonzales, and Carty added goals in the third quarter giving the Highlanders a 12-10 lead, but the Bulldogs scored twice in the final 2:31 of the quarter to tie the match at 12-12 after three periods.

Luke Magana scored to give the Highlanders a 14-12 lead with 5:39 left in the match, but the Bulldogs got goals from Austin Payne and Bruno to tie the score at 14-14 with 1:59 to play, setting the stage for a wild finish.

“It’s a really good win for us; we played good defense and our goalie played very well,” said Garrett Carty. “This gives us motivation going forward and we will be sky-high when we play Los Alamitos on Friday because they’re the team that knocked us out of the playoffs last year.”

“Our defense played well and our spacing was a lot better and our counterattack was super today and they’re a top 20 ranked team,” said Luke Magana, La Habra’s senior center, who scored three goals. “I have confidence in our 7 on 6 plays and we all trust each other.”

Buena Coach Tom Davis said he his team got exactly what they wanted from this game.

“It’s only our third game of the season and I am not at all upset with the outcome,” said Davis, a 1993 La Habra graduate. “La Habra is a very good team and it was a good match. I think the game went as I thought it would, but our team is going to be fine.”