From left, La Habra players Garrett Carty, Logan Fernandez and Caleb Gonzales led the Highlanders. (PHOTOS: Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone).
After a sluggish start, La Habra’s boys water polo team rallied and defeated Northwood 13-11 Tuesday afternoon in a CIF Division 2 second round playoff match at Northwood.
The Highlanders (20-8) advance to the quarterfinals and will host Damien on Friday.
“Northwood gave us all we could handle,” said La Habra Coach Mitch Carty. “We weren’t able to get our outside going, so we needed a strong inside presence and Luke (Magana) had a monster game for us.”
Trailing 2-0, Logan Fernandez scored to get the Highlanders offense rolling.
“After I came into the game, I was fortunate to get a goal and that may have given us a little push we needed,” said Fernandez, a sophomore attacker. “We settled in after that and started to play better in the second quarter.”
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Magana scored five goals in the match, including two goals in the second quarter that tied the score at 5-5 with 1:33 left in the half. Caleb Gonzales added a goal in the final minute to give the Highlanders a 6-5 lead halftime lead.
“We didn’t start the game out too well but we gave it all we had,” said Magana. “It’s the playoffs and it’s a great win on the road.”
Magana’s teammate Hayden Flores scored two second quarter goals as well to help spark La Habra.
“I think we may have been a little nervous when the match started, but we never gave up” said Flores. “We outlasted them with our conditioning.”
Both goalkeepers played outstanding in the match.
Colin Rivera stopped numerous shots in the first half and kept the T’wolves in the match. Equally impressive was Highlanders’ goalkeeper Jude Muci who blocked several point blank shots throughout the game.
“It was a bit of a wake up call when we fell behind 3-1; we didn’t want this to be our last game of the season,” Muci said.
La Habra started to create separation in the third quarter as the Highlanders outscored Northwood 4-1 and took a 10-6 lead after three quarters,.
“I think we started to fall apart a little in the third quarter and our communication wasn’t as good,” said Northwood attacker Ethan Bui, who scored three goals in the match.
Northwood coach Kyle Kim-E also noted his team seemed to tire in the third quarter.
“We started to run out of gas in the third quarter,” said Kim-E, who is in his 12th year as head coach of the T’wolves. “La Habra is a fast and disciplined team and we didn’t make quick enough adjustments to their attack. We have a young team and for many of these guys it was their first playoff experience.”
Northwood outscored the Highlanders 5-3 in the final quarter but Magana and Garrett Carty added crucial goals that kept La Habra safely ahead as the Highlanders closed out the match.
The T’wolves won five of their final seven matches and finished the season 18-12.
Shawn Zhaol also scored three goals and Sullivan Roschmann and Yahia Sakr added two goals a piece for the T’wolves. Rivera also scored a goal for Northwood. Fernandez, Flores and Carty each scored two goals and Carter Johnson added a goal for the Highlanders.
La Habra, which finished second in the Crestview League, has won 15 of its last 17 matches.
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