Saratoga News

Breitenbach leads Falcons to third place in polo tourney

By Dick Sparrer

The Saratoga water polo team couldn't beat Bellarmine in the Connelly Tournament last weekend. So join the club, Falcons...no one else could beat the Bells, either.

But those Falcons beat everyone else they played in the weekend tourney and came away with a very impressive third-place finish.

Saratoga lost to Bellarmine 14-7 in the third round of the tourney but came back with edge El Dorado 12-10 a game later to clinch third overall.

Bellarmine opened the tournament with wins over Menlo (9-3) and Cupertino (12-5) before beating Saratoga. The Bells came back to nip Palo Alto 11-9 in the championship game.

Saratoga started up the tourney with matching 9-8 wins over Hollister and Harbor before losing to the Bells and beating El Dorado. David Breitenbach poured in 13 goals in the four games to lead the Falcons to the team third.

Breitenbach and Jon Cox hammered home four goals apiece to lead the Falcons to the key win over El Dorado. Gur Doitel, Gerald Askew and Chris Capiello also scored goals in the victory.

The Falcons were up 3-1 after a period and 5-4 at the half, but trailed 8-7 heading into the fourth. Saratoga blitzed El Dorado 5-2 in the final period, though, to pull out the win.

Breitenbach pitched in six goals to lead the Falcons past Hollister. Collin Mitchell tossed in two goals in the win, and Jordan Jones added one.

Breitenbach came back with five goals in the 9-8 win over Harbor. Jones, David Kim, Cox and Capiello also scored for the winners.

Cox and Breitenbach scored two goals apiece, and Doitel, Askew and Jones also scored goals for the Falcons, but the Falcons lost to the Bells by seven. Bellarmine opened up a 7-0 lead in the first period and never looked back.

In other tournament action, Adrian Malamitsas canned three goals to lead Cupertino to a 9-4 win over Monta Vista. Chris Dunlap and Brandon Robinson chipped in with two goals each, and Ben Donaldson added one.

Justin Lee finished with three goals for Monta Vista.

But the Pioneers lost 12-5 a game later to eventual champion Bellarmine. Donaldson had two goals for 'Tino, and Robinson, Steven Puccinelli and Trevor Pegg had one each.

Monta Vista came back to beat Los Gatos 10-8 and Menlo 9-8, but the Matadors ended up losing 13-5 to St. Francis. Lee drilled four goals for the Mats and D.J. Tuttle had one.

Lee hammered in five goals, and Tuttle buried four in the win over Los Gatos. Brandon Montaner also scored in the win.

Tuttle knocked in four goals and Montaner added three in the win over Menlo. Lee had two goals to round out the scoring.

Clifton Awuy poured in two goals, and Ylan Iocobovici and Jason Chavez added one each to lead Lynbrook to a thrilling 4-3 win over Los Gatos.

But the Vikings lost 13-7 to El Dorado a game later despite three goals by Ross Morrill. Awuy added two goals for the Vikes, and Iocobovici and Frank Liao had one each.

In regular season play last week, Cupertino improved to 4-0 in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League with a 10-7 win over Los Gatos.

Saratoga clinched its first win of the De Anza Division season with a 14-10 victory over rival Lynbrook. Breitenbach led the charge for the Falcons with four goals, and Cox and Daniel O'Connell had three each. Mitchell, Jones and Doitel also scored goals in the victory for the Falcons.

Monta Vista, meanwhile, dropped a 15-7 nod to Gunn despite three goals by Tuttle and two each by Lee and Montaner.

In girls' water polo action, Lynbrook jumped to 10-4 for the year with a rousing 13-11 nonleague win over powerful Presentation. Suzannah Johnson led the charge with seven goals for the Vikings. Samara Silverman and Joanna Chung supported with two goals apiece, and Nicole Morasky and Diana Nguyen added one each.

Lynbrook snapped a 10-10 tie after three periods by outscoring the Panthers 3-1 in the fourth.

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