Photo by Cheryl Baldridge
Laguna’s girls water polo run for their third straight Division 1 CIF title ended Wednesday, Feb. 24, at the Woollett Center in Irvine as the Knights held off Laguna to pull off the upset.
Foothill (24-6) had lost eight straight to the Breakers including 10-4 and 11-5 losses this season.
The Knights played well, but self-inflicted errors by Laguna handed victory to the fifth seed.
After trailing 3-1 at the half, Laguna recapture momentum in the second half by tying the contest at 1:53 on a score by Sophia Lucas off a pass by Bella Baldridge.
Breakers had a number of great opportunities after that to take the lead but could not execute their shots even when uncontested.
Foothill scored on an outside shot with 2:20 remaining and Laguna had a number of great opportunities in the final minutes to tie the contest. Breakers last chance came on a power play in the last 29 seconds, but both shot attempts failed. Holly Parker was exceptional for Laguna in the cage with 10 saves including a number of amazing stops.
The 2016 Breaker squad (27-3) set a team record for defense allowing only 3.5 goals per game but it was the offensive execution especially on power play opportunities that plagued the team down the stretch.
