Agoura done in by the Dons

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers GREAT EFFORT—Agoura’s Meghan Corso rips an early goal past the Santa Barbara defense during the CIF-SS Division IV finals. It wasn’t supposed to end like this, not with this team, not this year.

Oh sure, the Santa Barbara Dons had won seven of the last eight CIF girls’ water polo championships, but this was going to be Agoura’s time to shine. After all, AHS (25-7) had already beaten the Dons (19-12) twice this season.

But sometimes things don’t go as planned.

The top-seeded Chargers lost to Santa Barbara, 8-7, at Rio Mesa High Tuesday afternoon in the CIF-SS Division IV title game.

“We all knew we wanted that CIF championship,” AHS senior Nicole Sands said. “We’re just crushed. I don’t know what happened. Maybe we came in thinking we were going to win. Everybody gave it their all.”

Things couldn’t have gone better for Agoura in the first quarter.

Senior Meghan Corso scored a pair of goals in the opening five minutes to stake the Chargers to a 2-0 lead. Junior 2-meters Carly Clark added another goal with 1:02 remaining in the quarter to push Agoura’s lead to 3-0.

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers EASY STOP—Sara Gralitzer makes another save for Agoura. Junior utility Emily Schmachtenberger opened the second quarter with her first goal of the afternoon to stretch the Charger lead to 4-0 with 6:26 remaining before halftime.

But the defending champion Dons, who defeated Agoura in the 2005 title game, refused to go down without a fight.

Santa Barbara sophomore Emily Martin put back-to-back goals past AHS goaltender Sara Gralitzer to cut the Charger lead in half at 4-2. With 2:20 remaining in the second quarter, Santa Barbara’s Kelly Easterday scored to make it a 4-3 game.

With their offense finally clicking, the SBHS defense began to clamp down on Agoura.

“We got a couple girls in foul trouble and that took away from our offense,” AHS head coach Jason Rosenthal said. “They did a good job of adjusting to what we were doing.”

Agoura led at halftime, 4-3, but momentum had clearly shifted.

Both teams were unable to get anything going offensively early in the third quarter, until Santa Barbara’s Adriana Friedland found the back of the net with 3:33 remaining in the quarter to tie the game at four goals apiece.

Charger junior driver Jillian Waldron answered right back with a long lob shot that beat the Don defense. It was Agoura’s first goal since the 6:26 mark in the second quarter—a scoreless drought of 10 minutes, 7 seconds.

The slim 5-4 lead wouldn’t hold up, as Santa Barbara scored twice more to finish the quarter with a 6-5 scoreboard advantage.

“Even when we went up 4-0, I knew there was going to be a point in time when they made a run,” Rosenthal said. “And they did. We couldn’t adjust to it.”

The fourth quarter provided the kind of drama Hollywood would envy.

Agoura sophomore Casey Flacks made consecutive steals early in the period, but was unable to convert on the offensive end when one shot hit the post and the other caromed off the crossbar.

Santa Barbara’s Courtney KiddKadlubek squeezed a shot just past Gralitzer to give her team a 7-5 lead with 3:06 remaining in the contest.

In the face of mounting adversity and an unyielding Santa Barbara defense, the Marmonte League champions refused to back down.

Clark scored with 2:27 remaining to bring the Chargers within a goal at 7-6.

“Carly Clark is an absolutely amazing player,” Sands said. “She really pumped us up. It was absolutely incredible.”

With 56 seconds remaining in the season and her team down by one, Schmachtenberger tied the game at seven goals apiece on a laser shot past SBHS goalkeeper Claire Frost.

“I knew we needed to pick it up and really went all-out with that shot,” Schmachtenberger said.

Gralitzer made a huge save with 26 seconds on the clock, and Agoura got the ball back with a chance to setup for the winning goal.

But the Santa Barbara defense forced yet another turnover and retained possession with 18 seconds remaining. Following a time out, Dons junior Cortney Collyer beat the Agoura defense and Santa Barbara took the lead with 8 seconds left to play.

Agoura’s final shot sailed high, and Santa Barbara escaped with yet another CIF championship.

“We all were ready and we all wanted to win it,” Flacks said. “We worked really hard and are disappointed and bummed that we lost. “But we came together, tried our hardest and gave all that we could,” she said. “We put everything out there and held nothing back. Santa Barbara just played a great game.”