Willow Glen Resident

Sports

Rams third in league, advance to polo playoffs

By Mike Barnhart

With the score tied and just 18 seconds remaining in the Blossom Valley Athletic League championship game on Nov. 3, veteran water polo coach Mike Monsees knew just what to do.

He called timeout and told his Leland players to keep playing the hand that had kept them afloat for the previous 27 minutes, 42 seconds against a determined Live Oak squad, the tournament host.

"I called the Gartner play," the coach said later, referring to talented senior Marcus Gartner, whose shooting hand to that point had delivered five of the team's nine goals.

When play resumed, Leland tossed the ball to sophomore Jonathan Lie on the right side of the pool. Lie quickly penetrated the 5-meter line, then flipped a pass back to Gartner, who was fouled immediately.

As the defender relaxed at the sound of the referee's whistle, Gartner turned and fired a right-hander just beyond the goalie's reach and into the left side of the net.

It was his sixth goal, a personal best for one game. More importantly, it put his team ahead 10-9, Leland's first lead of the game.

Seven seconds later, Leland (17-7) was the BVAL boys champion for the third season in a row.

While Leland tries the Division I waters, three other BVAL squads--Live Oak, Pioneer and Willow Glen--are competing in Division II.

The Mustangs earned the No. 12 seed after placing fourth in the BVAL tournament. They topped Mt. Pleasant 6-2 and lost a semi-final game to Leland 17-3 before losing the battle for third place to Willow Glen.

Willow Glen beat Pioneer 9-6 in the third-place game, behind three goals by Sam Brandt and two each by Geoffrey Dubridge and Luke Lebaron. Chris Green and Dustin Shean also scored for the Rams.

The No. 8 Rams were to match 16-8 records with No. 9 Aptos in a first-round match on Nov. 6 at Willow Glen. First round winners advance to the quarterfinals on Nov. 10 at St. Francis.

The Live Oak-Pioneer winner will take on No. 4 Burlingame (17-6) at 12:40 p.m. The Willow Glen-Aptos survivor challenges top seed Sacred Heart Prep (23-3) at 2 p.m.