CIF CHAMPS - Warrior water polo - first time in 21 years

Fallbrook High School won its first CIF boys water polo championship since 1993 with a 10-5 victory November 22 against Mar Vista at La Jolla High School's Coggan Pool.

The Warriors overcame a 4-2 third-quarter deficit in the CIF Division II final, scoring the game's next six goals to take the lead for the rest of the game.

"It was a great game. We certainly didn't play and shoot as well as we had hoped to, especially in the first half," said Fallbrook coach Bill Richardson.

The Mariners held a 3-2 halftime lead; the Warriors had taken 14 shots at that point. "I told the kids to keep shooting," Richardson said.

Fallbrook took another 14 shots in the second half. "We've been there before," Richardson said of coming from behind. "I was confident that we'd find a way if we could get out of our own way."

The Warriors brought a 23-7 regular-season record into the post-season and were the top seed in the Division II playoffs, giving Fallbrook a first-round bye. In the November 14 quarterfinals at Coggan Pool the Warriors faced eighth-seeded La Jolla Country Day and prevailed by a 10-7 score. "We didn't play our best game. La Jolla Country Day gave us a great match," Richardson said.

"We were in control of the game," Richardson said. "Just couldn't find the back of the cage."

Fallbrook senior Bobby Guerra played against La Jolla Country Day but became ill shortly after. He did not play in the November 18 semifinal against fourth-seeded Eastlake at Coggan Pool, nor had he practiced prior to that game.

The Warriors still had junior Chaz Sommer, who scored seven goals against the Titans. "Chaz had such an awesome game," Richardson said. "Couldn't seem to miss in that game."

The 14-3 final score in Fallbrook's favor sent the Warriors to the finals. "I think it might have been one of our best games of the season," Richardson said.

Mar Vista was seeded second in the Division II playoffs and entered the championship game with a 27-4 record. Scoring in the final began when senior Tristan Curnow passed to Guerra, who placed a shot into the net with 3:37 remaining in the first period.

"We were all really excited," Guerra said. "I was excited to have that opportunity, being out of the pool a whole week."

Guerra noted that his return to full strength meant that his teammates could utilize him. "It was a good confidence boost for them," Guerra said.

Later in the first quarter the Mar Vista goalkeeper had his hands on the ball but did not have control. Guerra took the ball away from the goalkeeper, shot, and scored with 2:05 left in the quarter for a 2-0 Fallbrook lead.

Mar Vista narrowed the Warrior margin to 2-1 when Shane Landry scored with 3:16 left in the second period. With 2:54 remaining in the second quarter the Mariners were awarded a five-meter penalty shot, and Josh Johnson placed the ball past Fallbrook senior goalkeeper Shaun Kilcrease to tie the score. The Mariners took a 3-2 lead when Faux Mahan scored with 2:05 remaining in the first half.

A player who receives an exclusion must leave the pool for 20 seconds of play. A player with three exclusions in a game is majored, or removed for the rest of the game. With five seconds left in the second period Johnson received his third exclusion. "We never recovered from that," said Mar Vista coach Chad Kavanagh. "Mentally we never got over it."

Mar Vista's Gabriel Caswall scored with 5:12 left in the third period to give the Mariners a 4-2 lead, but on Fallbrook's ensuing possession senior Eli Foli passed to Curnow, who scored with 4:58 left in the period. Curnow provided the assist on the tying goal Sommer placed into the net with 2:33 left in the third quarter.

Curnow was assessed an exclusion on the ensuing Mar Vista possession, but the Warriors killed the Mariners' power play. When Kilcrease obtained possession of the ball, he passed to sophomore Declan Harrison at the other end of the pool. Harrison's goal with 1:47 left in the period gave Fallbrook a 5-4 lead.

"It's nice having a really good goalie," Harrison said.

Harrison, who was the only sophomore on Fallbrook's varsity, was one of seven Fallbrook players to score in the championship game. "I'm really happy with our team this year because we play as a team instead of playing as individuals," he said.

Two of those seven players, Harrison and senior Jacob Karasek, didn't start the game. "We're a fairly deep team, so I have confidence in the players coming off the bench," Richardson said.

Guerra added an assist to his two goals when Curnow scored with 31 seconds left on the clock in the third quarter. "I think it was all a team effort," Guerra said. "There was no key player, really."

Foli scored the next goal, in conjunction with an assist from Curnow, with 5:53 left in the final seven-minute quarter. Kilcrease obtained his second assist of the game when junior Toby Fast scored with 2:12 remaining.

"Our team came together," Foli said.

The score became 8-5 when a Jacques Henot goal closed out Mar Vista's offensive success with 1:52 left. The game had 1:38 remaining when Sommer scored from Curnow's pass. Karasek scored the game's final goal with 44 seconds left on the clock.

"I'm really glad we got to this game," Kavanagh said. "I was a little disappointed that we didn't finish."

Kilcrease had 11 saves against the Mariners. The Warriors had a total of 18 steals, including nine by Foli and four for Harrison.

"That's awesome," Foli said of having nine steals in the championship game.

"Eli's been great all year," Richardson said. "He's just been such a great leader and team captain."

Sommer and Harrison each had one field block.

Fallbrook won all four of its Valley League games to give the Warriors a league championship along with the CIF championship, and the Warriors also won the San Diego Open tournament during the season. The victory in the CIF final gave Fallbrook a 26-7 record for the season; Mar Vista was the only CIF San Diego Section team with more 2014 victories.

The CIF championship was the fourth for a Fallbrook boys water polo team; the Warriors won the 1993 Division I championship and also won CIF titles in 1972 and 1977 when the water polo playoffs had only one division.