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2005 America's Finest City Invitational

Goals unchanged for Barons after ninth-place finish

Scores and Game Summaries

By Phillip Brents

Posted Sept. 27, 2005

Photo: Bonita Vista goalie Zach Bowman makes a save in Tuesday's Mesa League opener against Chula Vista.

Despite finishing ninth in last weekend’s 32-team America’s Finest City Invitational, the goal remains the same for the Bonita Vista boys water polo team. Head coach Dan Way demonstrated that by holding one finger high into the air after Tuesday’s Mesa League opener – a 14-1 win – against Chula Vista at the Parkway pool.

"Our goal hasn’t changed. At the end of the season, we want to be holding a finger in the air after we win the CIF title," Way said.

Way earlier described that task as climbing a mountain. The Barons are still in the process of scaling it. Way said the team’s five games in the AFC Invitational were about "fine-tuning and continuing to grow as a team."

"We grew a lot as a team," the BV coach said.

After the Barons finished second in the 32-team Poway Invitational the week before, the ninth place finish at last weekend’s tournament was somewhat misleading in that the event was dominated by out-of-town teams. Harvard Westlake defeated The Menlo School, 7-6, in the championship game while tourney-host Coronado edged Miracosta from Manhattan Beach, 10-9, in the third-place game. Torrey Pines finished sixth after its 9-7 loss against Murrieta Valley while La Jolla topped Temecula Chapparal, 14-5, in the seventh-place game.

Bonita Vista’s lone loss in the AFC tournament was 11-6 to La Jolla. "We were up early (4-3) in that game and we lost a little bit of our momentum. It was also in their pool, so they had some home-field advantage going there," Way said of the loss to the perennial Division II power Vikings.

In fact, the Barons faced only two San Diego Section teams in the AFC tourney. After defeating Crespi Carmelite, 13-4, Bonita Vista was relegated to the consolation pool with the loss to La Jolla. But the Barons bounced back with three consecutive victories to end tourney play by defeating Valhalla (10-5), San Ramon Valley (12-7) and the Bonita Bearcats from La Verne (13-10). In the win against Bonita, Gabriel Gonzalez led the scoring column with five goals, followed by teammates Robert Newman and Josh Harris with three goals each. Newman and Derrik Clair-Williams each had three goals in the win against Crespi Carmelite.

In any other year, a win against perennial section power Valhalla might be reason to rejoice but this year’s team appears to have taken it in stride in keeping with its championship end goal. The Norsemen edged the Barons, 9-8, in the 1995 Division I championship game. Way played on that legendary BV team.

Instead, Way said his team has set its focus on beating teams like Granite Hills, Torrey Pines, Poway and Carlsbad. The Barons appear halfway there after scoring victories against the first two teams in the list. Bonita Vista has upcoming non-league games against Cathedral Catholic (Oct. 13), Torrey Pines (Oct. 15) and reigning Division II champion Bishop’s (Oct. 21) remaining on the regular season schedule. The Barons also expect to meet up with other elite teams in the upcoming San Diego Open Invitational just prior to the San Diego Section playoffs.

"This game (against Chula Vista) was basically our only game for almost the next two weeks. It’s almost like back to Hell Week for us in terms of practices," Way said. "Each game is goal along the way for us."

Bonita Vista tuned up for the AFC tournament by defeating University City, 10-4, on Sept. 22. Gonzales led the Barons with three goals, followed by Harris and Dennis Schulz with two goals each.

In Tuesday’s game, Bonita Vista (10-2) played its entire bench, moving out to a 10-0 halftime lead on the Spartans (1-4). Erasmo Ames scored Chula Vista’s lone goal.

AFC tournament notepad

This year’s AFC Invitational was stacked with an exceedingly large number of close games. That competitiveness was no better illustrated than in the medal round as eight of the 16 placing contests were decided by one goal and three more games were decided by two goals.

Bonita Vista Boys Water Polo Team - 2K5