OCHS boys’ water polo team bounced from playoffs by Righetti

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers SPECTACULAR SEASON COMES TO AN END—Oaks Christian’s Ryan Balikian gets out in ront of the defense during Friday’s 4-2 first-round victory over Westlake. On Tuesday, OCHS was eliminated from the postseason by Righetti, 10-4. The Lions finished the year 28-2 overall. The warm, crisp Santa Ana winds that whipped through The Valley Tuesday afternoon did little to heat up the Oaks Christian water polo team’s offense, as the Lions were eliminated by the Righetti Warriors at home, 10-4, in the second round of the Division IV playoffs.

While missed opportunities around the Righetti goal ultimately doomed the Lions, the loss couldn’t take away from the stellar season Oaks Christian had, a year that included a 28-2 overall record and a Frontier League championship.

“I guess, in a way, it’s disappointing that we lost,” junior twometer Jon Pare said. “But we really have no regrets because we played our heats out in the game. We had a lot of opportunities to put the ball away but we just couldn’t find the back of the net.”

OCHS head coach Stuart Craft was visibly upset following the loss, but said he couldn’t have been more pleased with the season his team put together, especially considering the fact that the Lions will graduate only one senior, twometer man M.J. Gonzalez.

“Obviously I’m down because we lost,” Craft said. “But I’m so proud of these kids for having the season they did being so young. We only lose one starter out of 13. . . .

“The guys played hard, but we missed a lot of shots,” the coach said. “Righetti is a very, very good team, the toughest team we’ve played all year.”

Righetti jumped out to an early lead when utility man Greg McGilvary scored less than two minutes into the first quarter.

The Lions answered back with a goal of their own at the 3:27 mark in the first when Pare lobbed a soft, arching shot that found the back corner of the net. Junior twometer Ryan Balikian was credited with the assist.

Righetti scored a pair of unanswered goals later in the period to open up a 3-1 advantage on Oaks Christian.

The second quarter was a defensive battle through the first six minutes before Righetti’s Michael Rogers scored with 1:12 left before intermission to make the score 4-1 in favor of the Warriors.

“Things usually get more physical the deeper you go into the playoffs,” Warrior head coach Kyler Shaffer said. “It certainly was a grind-it-out first half for both teams.”

Two more goals to start the third quarter saw the Warriors expand their lead to 6-1.

Pare finally broke an OCHS scoring drought of nearly 14 minutes when he buried a shot past Righetti goalie Cory Yamashiro at the 3:28 mark of the third quarter to make the score 6-2.

Less than a minute later, Lion defenseman Tyler Reardon took a pass from Balikian and found the back of the net to pull OCHS to within 6-3 as the third quarter expired.

In the fourth quarter, however, Righetti swiftly dashed any hopes of a Lion comeback by scoring two quick goals to expand the lead to 8-3.

Yamashiro continued to thwart away OCHS scoring chances with spectacular play between the pipes as the game clock wound down.

A late goal by Gonzalez made the score 9-4 in favor of the Warriors, who would eventually go on to win by a 10-4 margin.

“They were a lot bigger than us and worked really well together as a team,” sophomore goalie Aric Avedissian said. “We didn’t have one of our best days, and our shooting was a little off. But still, it was a good season.”