Tritons Save Their Best for Last to Top Long Beach Wilson, Advance to Division 2 Final

After falling in each of the past two season's CIF Southern Section Division 2 semifinals, the third time was especially charming for the San Clemente girls water polo team Wednesday evening at the William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Complex in Irvine, where, for the first time ever, the Tritons qualified for the section finals with a thrilling, come-from-behind 10-9 victory over Long Beach Wilson.

San Clemente's Taylor Smith scored the game-winning goal with 52 seconds left on a six-on-five opportunity in which the junior attacker skied to collect a cross from Mikaela Mourer and sent a skip-shot into the left corner of the net.

Exactly one minute earlier, it was Mourer who tied the score at 9-9 with an almost identical play from the post, this time on an assist from Celine Lazzaro.

"We were both on the post, and you just have to be up on your legs during six-on-fives," Mourer said. "That's what we've been working on, getting up high on the pass and getting it inside the goal."

Both six-on-five goals came at the end of a grueling contest for San Clemente, which fell behind early to an extremely talented Long Beach Wilson club, and had to scratch and claw its way back.

Wilson fired out to a 3-0 lead in the first quarter when Chris Baker scored on the Bruins' first six-on-five opportunity. It took the Tritons two full quarters to finally catch up, as Smith helped on Mourer's second goal with five minutes and change left in the third to knot the contest at seven apiece.

"It was just kind of a crazy game," San Clemente coach Logan Powell said. "We got down early, and it was like were just grinding away, grinding away at them. These girls, they've shown it all season, from early on when we were down 7-1 to Montebello in the Villa Park Classic and ended up tying it, these girls have shown resilience. They keep going. They keep going. And most teams aren't going to be able to handle that for four quarters."

Both Mourer, a senior, and Smith scored three goals to pace the Tritons, and their teamwork in the final moments -- none more pressure-packed all season -- stood as a testament to why the South Coast League champions were seeded No. 1 heading into the tournament.

"We really just try to focus on communication," Smith said. "It's a big part of our game; it's one of the main things we work on in practice.

"This shows that hard work pays off."

After the final buzzer sounded, the Tritons went nuts, celebrating wildly on the pool deck in front of a large and loud crowd on hand at the Woollett Complex.

For the Bruins, however, the night turned bitter cold following a shot with two seconds left that Kayla Colapinto (11 saves) stopped for the Tritons, especially after Wilson had controlled the contest so thoroughly from the opening sprint.

USC-bound senior Eike Daube was outstanding, finishing with a game-high four goals, including a skip-shot winner with five minutes left to give the Bruins a 9-8 lead they would hold onto until the closing minutes.

"We came out ready to play, that's for sure," Long Beach Wilson coach Tony Martinho said. "We were happy with the effort. We were happy with the game plan. It's always disappointing, ending the season on a loss, but I'm really, really proud of them for their effort this evening."

Said Powell: "Long Beach Wilson, those girls are really good. [Daube] gave us all we could handle. We tried our best not to foul her, and to make other people beat us, and it ended up being successful in the end. But they definitely gave us a run for our money."

Candyce Shroeder tallied two scores for San Clemente, while Ally Loveless did the same for Wilson (13-16). The Tritons finished with 26 shots, as did the Bruins.

"San Clemente worked really hard to gain exclusions," Martinho said. "Our girls did a great job all game long of keeping their hands up, but not getting excluded. They just converted two of those last six-on-fives at the end, and many times the game will swing on that."

San Clemente (24-5) will face Corona Santiago in the Division 2 championship, Saturday at 2:45 p.m., again at the Woollett Complex.

"We're looking for victory," Mourer said. "Hopefully all goes well."