Laguna Secures Winning Water Polo Season
Boys Water Polo (14-10, 0-4)
Breakers secured at least a .500 season with a 3-2 road trip to Northern California that included a 10th place finish in the 13th North–South Challenge held in Atherton.
On Thursday, Oct. 17, Laguna defeated Monte Vista (Danville) 9-7 in a non-league contest played at Miramonte High School in Orinda. Breakers jumped out to a 5-1 first period lead with two scores by William Kelly, and single scores from Toby Bumgardner, Augie Renezedor, and James Nolan. From that point, the officiating turned tight and the Mustangs (18-2) fought back, trailing only 8-7 into the final period. Caden Capobianco was brilliant in the cage, taking 14 saves into the final quarter as Laguna prevailed.
On Friday morning, Breakers opened their tournament play at Sacred Heart Prep dropping a 9-7 contest to Miramonte. James Nolan scored three goals and Augie Renezedor added two. Laguna rallied late in the game but couldn’t overcome the 8-3 Matador advantage entering the final period. In the afternoon contest at Spieker Pool at Menlo Atherton, Laguna rallied to defeat Menlo School 9-8 in a thriller. The Knights led much of the way until the final period when Sai Bassett stole the ball and drove the length of the pool to tie the contest at 7. A minute later, Augie Renezedor added a goal from a great pass by James Nolan, and the Breakers finally had a lead. The Knights tied the game on their next possession but Bassett countered, providing a sharp pass to William Kelly for the game winning goal.
In Saturday’s play, Laguna seemed to have the contest with Bellarmine Prep in-hand, leading 9-6 with about 90 seconds remaining. The Bells mounted a furious comeback, scoring the game-tying goal at the buzzer and sending the contest to overtime. Breakers controlled the tempo in the extra-periods to escape with an 11-10 win. William Kelly was outstanding in the game with six goals, two assists and four steals. Caden Capobianco recorded 13 saves and an assist.
In the 9th place contest, Campolindo overpowered the Breakers 12-7 as the Cougars pulled away in the second period and were never threatened.
The regular season concludes with Sunset Surf League games on Oct. 23 (Huntington Beach) and Oct. 30 (Newport Harbor). The final game will be a non-league crossover contest with Los Alamitos (15-6) on Nov. 1.
Playoff brackets will be released on Saturday, Nov. 2, at cifss.org, with Laguna hoping for an at-large placement in D2.
Football (5-3, 1-0)
Johnson Sets Career Records in Romp over Godinez
Andrew Johnson set three major career records as Laguna rolled with a 42-6 win over Godinez last Friday night at Guyer Field to open Golden West Pac 4 play. Johnson broke the career record for pass completions, touchdown passes, and touchdowns responsible for (rush + pass) breaking the records set by Austin Paxson in 2008-10.
Breakers scored early in the game on a 25-yard pass play to Conner Fink, then on their next possession, went 79 yards in 17 plays to score on a short run by Tyler Fields. Godinez came right back in the second quarter with an 81-yard 12-play drive of their own, for a score giving the impression that the game could be a shootout. Their two-point conversion attempt failed when Sam Tyrrell intercepted the pass. On the ensuing kickoff, Tyler Fields returned the ball 87 yards to extend Laguna’s lead to 21-7. Breakers scored again on their final possession of the first half when Andrew Johnson found an open Raul Villalobos for a 68-yard bomb with seconds remaining.
Laguna came out in the second half and wasted no time to put the game away. Grizzlies tried an on-side kick to open the second half, allowing the Breakers great field position on their own 49-yard line. Four straight pass plays after a short Jackson Golden run, and the Breakers were up 35-6. After a Godinez punt, the Breakers drive failed on an interception. Godinez stalled on their next try, with Connor Fink picking off a pass to set up Laguna’s last score. The period ended one play later, and the fourth quarter was short due to a running clock.
For game statistics, visit www.lagunabeachindy.com.
UP NEXT: Laguna continues their Golden West Conference – Pac 4 play this Friday, Oct. 25, with their final regular season home game at Guyer Field facing Western (7-1) in a very challenging contest. The D10 Pioneers have recorded six shutouts this season and will be the best team seen this season at Guyer. Laguna stats and the schedule can be found at the Laguna page on MaxPreps.com.
Cross Country
Boys XCC: Laguna finished 8th out of 33 teams at the Roughrider Invitational held on Oct. 18 in Fresno on the state meet course. Logan Brooks was the top Breaker with a 16:22.8 for the 5K course and was second overall out of 249 runners. Also scoring for Laguna were Tanner Burton, Cristopher Drews, Gabe Neff, and Alex Boyd. Filmore won the team title.
Girls XCC: The ladies ran in the Orange County Championship on Saturday, Oct. 19, at Oak Canyon Park, finishing 14th in the Varsity Sweepstakes Division, with Morgan Falkowski recording the top team time on the 3-mile course. Also scoring for the squad were Jessie Rose, Sierra Read, Nina Rodgers and Coco Reed.
Up next is the Riverside Invitational on Oct. 26 held on the CIF course. The Sunset Conference meet is Nov. 2 at Central Park in Huntington.=
Girls Golf (2-14, 0-6)
Breakers lost their final match of the season, dropping a 234-212 contest with Newport Harbor on Oct. 17. The league meet was held earlier this past week with Kennedy Roller the lone Laguna golfer advancing to the conference finals.
Girls Tennis (6-8, 1-2)
Laguna is in a battle to try and qualify for the playoffs after two tough league losses. On Oct. 17 at Edison, the squad lost to the Chargers 11-7 with four sets in doubles that could have gone either way. In singles, Sarah MacCallum swept her matches 6-1, 6-0, 6-0. On Tuesday, Oct. 22, they lost 12-6 to Huntington Beach as they dropped five of six sets in the final round of play. The season will come down to their match with Edison here on Oct. 28.
Girls Volleyball (28-9, 6-0)
Laguna’s successful season was rewarded with an 11th seed in the 12-team D1 playoffs, marking their first appearance in the top division since 1998. The opening match was played at Dugger Gym with the Breakers hosting Mira Costa for the 10th time in the section playoffs and the first time since 1990.
The Mustangs hold a 14-4 series edge; Laguna did beat Costa in a regular season match in 2011 at Dugger Gym and also defeated them here in a 1996 state playoff game. The other two victories were in the 1996 SSCIF finals and a 1993 playoff match at the Manhattan Beach school. The match winner will play at Mater Dei on Wednesday, Oct. 30, at 6 p.m.
Laguna has also qualified for state, and the pairings will be released on Nov. 10, with the first contest either on Nov. 12 (D1) or Nov. 13 (Open). State CIF site: www.cifss.org
Last week, the squad wrapped up the regular season with an easy 25-22, 25-21, 25-12 over Sage Hill at their gym. Top kill leader was Cambria Hall with 12, followed by Soren Patchell with none, Luisa Lofranco with seven and Piper Naess with six.
Final Regular Season DI Rankings: 1 – Redondo Union, 2 – Marymount, 3 – Mater Dei, 4 – Sierra Canyon, 5 – Foothill, 6 – Mira Costa, 7 – Vista Murrieta, 8 – Aliso Niguel, 9 – Long Beach Poly, 10 – Corona del Mar, 11 – Laguna Beach, 12 – Huntington Beach
D2: 1 – Village Christian, 2 – San Juan Hills, 3 – Chaparral, 4 – Santa Margarita, 5 – Los Alamitos, 6 – Temecula Valley, 7 – Palos Verdes, 8 – Dana Hills, 9 – Lakewood, 10 – Bishop Montgomery (32 teams selected in D2 – the final 4 D2 will be included with D1 for State.)
You can follow the team on Instagram at lbhsvarsitygirlsvb and statistics are posted on Max Preps. Also catch the individual match video highlights by searching for “Laguna Beach Girls Volleyball” on the search tab at www.hudl.com.
Boys Sand Volleyball (4-1)
This week’s match was held Wednesday, Oct. 23—too late to be included in this week’s report.
