SD Prep Sports

SD Prep Sports: Water Polo

Metro Conference tournament

Metro's 'Final Four' set to make a splash

Eastlake, Mar Vista and Hilltop join Bonita Vista in chase for tourney title

By Phillip Brents

CHULA VISTA, Nov. 6, 2002 -- Top-seeded Bonita Vista will take on fourth-seeded Hilltop and second--seeded Eastlake will meet third-seeded Mar Vista in the semifinal-round of this year’s Metro Conference boys water polo tournament finals Saturday, Nov. 9, at Southwestern College.

Eastlake, Mar Vista and Hilltop all advanced to Saturday’s finals following victories in Wednesday’s first round, also at Southwestern College. Senior Nik Clair-Williams raised his career goal total to 352 by scoring eight goals in Eastlake's 28-6 win against seventh-seeded Southwest while senior Joe Czerwiec helped fuel Mar Vista's 14-9 come-from-behind victory against an ironman Montgomery team playing without substitutes with seven goals. In the finale, Hilltop received five goals from senior Jeff Schroeder and four goals each from senior Nick Kolata and junior Nick Davidson in a 19-10 victory against fifth-seeded Chula Vista.

Eastlake, which was coming off a 17-7 non-league loss on Tuesday to West Hills, received goals from nine players in the win against Southwest. Steve Sanchez followed Clair-Williams on the scoresheet with six goals while Max Lopez had five goals and Peter Silva, splitting time in the cage, had three goals. James Hiney contributed two goals and four steals. Scoring single goals were Jonathan Alvarez, Moises Marquez, James Laxson and Sam Gottlieb. Laxson also made a team-high six steals. Both Clair-Williams and Silva had four steals while also contributing to the defensive side of the ball was Alvarez with three steals.

Manny Mariscal led the Raiders (0-7) with two goals.

In the second game, sixth-seeded Montgomery (2-6) recovered from an early 1-0 deficit to post leads of 3-1, 8-6 and 9-8 against a Mar Vista team playing without sophomore standout Jualin Czerwiec. The comeback win evened the Mariners record at 11-11 after recording just one win (plus one forfeit victory) last year.

The Aztecs got consecutive goals from J.P. Leksell, Jorge Camacho and Roberto Balestreri to offset a jump goal by MV's Shawn Johnson to lead 3-1. However, the Mariners responded with five straight goals -- two more by Johnson and singles each from Noah Stamm and Joe Czerwiec -- to take a 6-3 lead.

Montgomery, however, got back in the game on goals by Manlio Elazab and Camacho's second of the game to trail 6-5 at halftime. The Aztecs roared out of the chute in the second half with the only three goals of the third period -- all by Elazab -- to take an 8-6 lead.

The fourth period belonged to the Mariners, who racked up the first two goals of the quarter (both by Czerwiec) to tie the game at 8-all and reeled off six unanswered goals to close the game after Balestreri scored on a four-meter penalty shot to give Montgomery a 9-8 lead with 5:26 to play. Johnson finished the game with five goals while Sean Gil matched Stramm with one goal in the game. Senior Andrew Allen, though held without a goal, contributed several assists from the field. Allen provided the assist on Czerwiec's 10-9 go-ahead goal and also had assists on three other MV goals in the team's final period comeback.

Gil had the final insurance goal in the Mariners' 9-7 comeback win against Hilltop to secure the third seed for the Metro tournament. Julian Czerwiec scored the tying 7-7 goal and go-ahead 9-8 goal. Julian Czerwiec finished the game against the Lancers with five goals while goalie Eric Griebel had 12 saves.

Mar Vista coach Chip Case has to feel pleased about the +10 turnaround in wins this season despite all the bumps the team experienced throughout the year.

"I told them early in the season they would win a lot of games this season but I don't think they believed me when they were playing teams like West Hills (31-7 loss) and Granite Hills (21-5 loss)," Case said. "But to get better, you got to play the better teams, not kindergarten teams."

In closing out first-round tournament play, Hilltop took a 7-2 first-period lead against Chula Vista before the teams settled into a defensive mode with just two goals (one apiece) in the second quarter. The Lancers scored the opening two goals of the third period to lead 10-3 and finished with an eventual nine-goal victory margin.

Schroeder tied Davidson for the team lead with 42 goals while Kovar's three goals gave him 38 for the season. Last year, Kovar scored just three goals. He had three goals in the first period alone against the Spartans.Will Crumly had two goals in the fourth period after playing the first half in the cage. Joe Olivarria rounded out Hilltop's scoring with one goal.

Gregorio Flores paced Chula Vista (2-7) with four goals. Luis Sandoval and Julian Dash both scored two goals while Bryan Flitcraft added one goal.