SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Water Polo

2004 South Bay League champion Mar Vista Mariners

Mar Vista wins South Bay League title

By Phillip Brents

IMPERIAL BEACH, Oct. 28 -- The rematch did not have the same intensity as the first meeting but for the Mar Vista Mariners, it had the same result: a victory. Following Thursday's 11-8 win, Mar Vista gets the right to raise the 2004 South Bay League banner. Hilltop -- a close second in both matchups this season -- finishes ... a close second.

Hilltop won the 1987 South Bay League championship, though only three teams participated in the revived league at that time. Since the CIF-San Diego Section recognized leagues only with four members or more, no automatic playoff berth was awarded that year to the South Bay League champion. Both the Mesa League and South Bay League were subsequently absorbed into one Metro Conference league.

Mar Vista took its lumps in that pioneering 1987 season. The program has grown tremendously since then, as was evidenced on Thursday.

As the final buzzer sounded, Mariners coach Chip Case promptly joined the rest of his team, and a few onlookers, into the water in celebration.

Fists shot skyward. A lot of hard work had been finally realized.

"I give all the credit to our four seniors: Kyle Stogsdall, Julian Czerwiec, Scott Knox and Max Craig," Case said afterward. "They dedicated themselves to this sport and this is the result today."

Czerwiec led all scorers in the pool with six goals. At times, he was simply unstoppable despite the most ferocious defense applied against him. Knox, Stogsdall and Craig each had one goal.

The Mariners (8-10 overall) moved out to a 3-0 first quarter advantage and the early cushion proved critical later in the game. Hilltop (8-8) fought back valiantly in the second quarter to pull within one goal at 4-3 and later tied the game at 4-4 at the 53-second mark of the third quarter. But Mar Vista's speed proved deadly on counter-attacks as the game went on and Hilltop found itself once again fighting back from one- and two-goal deficits throughout much of the third period. The Mariners finally got some breathing room at 9-6 when Czerwiec scored on a power play 36 seconds into the fourth quarter. Mar Vista took a four-goal lead at 10-6 with 2:07 left when Knox hit on another man-up situation.

Power-play goals were a telling story in the game, particularly in the late stages, though ejections were not. The Mariners scored five of their 11 goals on man-up opportunities, along with one four-meter penalty shot. Hilltop had three man-up goals and one four-meter penalty shot.

MV goalie Dane Bolding had nine saves in the game. His counterpart, Fernando Yates, also played well in the cage for Hilltop.

"Both teams were very tentative to start the game. Both teams knew the scope of this game and did not want to make any mistakes. They knew how aggressive the last game was. The tone of this game was different. It took a couple quarters to get into it," Case said. "Hilltop's players knew they had to win this game to get a share of the league banner. Hilltop had a great run in the second quarter. I think our speed got to them in the second half."

Hilltop started off shaky. Czerwiec converted a steal into the game's jump goal and Garrett Griffin pounced on an errant outlet pass in front of the visitors' cage for a 2-0 lead. Andrew Arroyave added a power-play goal moments later for a confidence-building 3-0 lead.

"They want it bad but we want it worse. What's the score?" Case asked his team during the break between the first and second periods.

"Zero-zero," Mariners players answered in unison.

"We go out there and win every quarter," Case responded.

With the exception of the second quarter, Mar Vista's quarter-by-quarter strategy essentially worked. After being outscored 3-1 by Hilltop in the second period, the Mariners outscored Hilltop 3-2 in the third quarter and 4-3 in the final period.

"We had four starters out all week because of sickness. They came back to play in this game. But there's no excuse for mental lapses. I can understand the physical aspect," Hilltop coach John Salts said. "Mar Vista showed up to play. I congratulate them. Both teams worked hard over the past four years to build their programs. I'm glad it worked out for one of us."

"These guys deserve it. We'll see what comes about in the San Diego Open next week. I guess this puts us into the CIF playoffs as a league champion. We'll try to be good ambassadors for our league and see what happens," Case said.

Matt Chism led Hilltop with three goals while Hesam Jelveh and Nicko Fix each scored two goals. Ricky Lucero had the team's other goal.

Backed by aggressive defense, Hilltop came out in the second quarter with the opening two goals to trim the Mar Vista lead to 3-2. Chism finally got a shot past Bolding and then Jelveh scored on a backhand shot.

However, Knox set up Czerwiec with a nice cross cage pass for a man-up goal to enable the Mariners to go up by a 4-2 score. After two more near-misses for Hilltop, Fix found an open lane along the side and scored with four second left before halftime to bring Hilltop back to within one goal.

Hilltop appeared to retain the momentum when Chism tied the game on a power play in the first minute of the third quarter but Czerwiec fought off persistent pressure from two meters to put the hosts back up by one goal. Stogsdall then scored on a break to put the Mariners ahead by two goals. Jelveh answered for Hilltop to make the score 6-5 but Czerwiec scored another momentum-breaking goal, this time on a feed from Bolding, to enable Mar Vista to head into the final quarter of play with a two-goal lead.

Czerwiec and Craig both hit power play goals to start the fourth period as the Mariners took a 9-5 lead. Chism's penalty shot narrowed the score to 10-8 with 47 seconds to play in regulation but Czerwiec prevented any heroic last-second comeback by scoring on a four-meter shot 10 seconds later.

Hilltop got a measure of revenge by winning the JV game 9-8 in double overtime. Albert Villalobos got the game-winner for Hilltop.