For the Live Oak High girls water polo team, the third time was
definitely not a charm. In fact, it was more like an evil spell.
Playing Tri-County Athletic League rival Santa Catalina for the
third time this season, having beaten them soundly the first two
times, the Acorn girls were prohibitive favorites against a team
making its first CCS playoff appearance in school history. But No.
7 Live Oak (22-7 overall) allowed let the upstart No. 10 Cougars
(21-4 overall) to hang around just long enough to take advantage of
the Acorns
’ uninspired play and pull off a shocking 4-3 upset in the first
round of the playoffs at Live Oak Wednesday.
For the Live Oak High girls water polo team, the third time was definitely not a charm. In fact, it was more like an evil spell.
Playing Tri-County Athletic League rival Santa Catalina for the third time this season, having beaten them soundly the first two times, the Acorn girls were prohibitive favorites against a team making its first CCS playoff appearance in school history.
But No. 7 Live Oak (22-7 overall) allowed let the upstart No. 10 Cougars (21-4 overall) to hang around just long enough to take advantage of the Acorns’ uninspired play and pull off a shocking 4-3 upset in the first round of the playoffs at Live Oak Wednesday.
A tough Santa Catalina defense combined with some horrendous luck doomed the Acorns, who had just won the TCAL tourney title with a 9-4 win over the same Cougars team the previous Saturday to complete a perfect league campaign. Live Oak had beaten Santa Catalina in a regular season game earlier this season.
Live Oak took its share of shots in Wednesday’s game but banged at least seven of them off the Cougar goal posts.
“We were just sloppy,” Live Oak coach Bryan Traverso said. “I can’t sum it up any other way. Hitting the post, over the cage. It’s never a problem getting a shot, it’s finishing. That’s kind of been the story of our season.”
Still dripping from a post-game celebratory dunking, Santa Catalina coach John Morton called the victory the five-year-old program’s biggest win. He said playing the vaunted Acorns was an advantage for the Cougars despite the previous losses.
“After the first game, we knew what we had to do to win,” Morton said. “We didn’t do that very well in the second game but we did today.”
Trailing 3-1 at halftime after Live Oak junior Ronni Gautschi netted a laser shot from mid-pool at the buzzer, Santa Catalina stayed with its game plan and shut down the Acorns in the second half.
Gautschi had staked Live Oak to an early 2-0 lead, with one goal coming on a brilliant no-look, reverse shot, before the Cougars pulled within 2-1 on a tipped goal by Amanda Darnell.
Santa Catalina’s double-team on Gautschi appeared to take its toll on the star player in the second half, and none of the rest of the Acorn scorers could break through. Live Oak had repeated one-on-one scoring opportunities that came up empty.
While Live Oak goalie Danielle Maldonado was outstanding in net, making a host of saves against the Cougar attack, she couldn’t hold off the Santa Catalina momentum.
Cougar Kaitlin Boensel tallied a goal midway through the third quarter to pull Santa Catalina within 3-2, then scored again with three minutes to play to tie the game.
Two minutes later, Darnell came through with the game-winner.
Santa Catalina advances to play No. 2 St. Francis in the second round of the CCS playoffs.
Live Oak finishes its season in the first round of the CCS playoffs for the second straight season, and will lose senior starters Maldonado and Amanda Cretcher but will return most of its starting lineup.
