The @jserra_boys_water_polo team and the Santa Margarita Eagles produced a memorable back-and-forth Trinity League thriller on Wednesday, with the Lions pulling out a 12-11 victory in the second golden goal overtime time period at Santa Margarita Catholic High School.
JSerra is now 14-3 overall and 4-0 in league.
Junior Christian Yonker and sophomore Sasha Bjelica powered first period goals into the back of the net for the Lions, as the two teams battled to a 2-2 tie.
Sophomore Christopher Koo supplied his lone goal of the contest 34 seconds into the second period to propel the Lions into a 3-2 lead.
Junior Andrew Schneider, who assisted Koo’s goal, produced his lone goal 49 seconds later to give the Lions a 4-2 advantage.
Yonker’s second scoring strike with 3:08 left in the half bumped up the Lions lead to 5-2.
Santa Margarita tallied the half’s final two goals to cut the deficit to 5-4 at the intermission.
Junior Cal Ulicny opened the third period with his lone score to give JSerra a 6-4 lead.
Santa Margarita scored three straight goals to take their first lead of the game at 7-6 with 19 seconds left in the period.
Junior Ronan Keane beat the period buzzer with a near side goal to tie the game at 7-7 entering the fourth period.
The Eagles claimed an 8-7 lead with 5:11 left.
Senior Joe Wraith produced the game’s equalizer on a man-advantage attack for the Lions with 2:40 remaining.
Santa Margarita recaptured the lead with 1:33 remaining, but junior Lars Knepper skipped a shot into the back of the cage with 0:44 seconds left to tie the game at 9-9 and force overtime.
Keane’s second goal off a transition attack by Knepper put JSerra ahead 10-9 at the end of the first overtime period.
Knepper powered in his second goal with 2:12 remaining in the second overtime period to put the Lions ahead 11-10.
The Eagles battled back to tie the game at 11-11 with 1:20 remaining and the two teams headed into golden goal overtime.
Junior Dylan Park provided the game’s decisive moment with 2:39 remaining in the second golden goal period, as he rocketed a shot from about 10 meters in front of the cage into the back of the net.
📷 @dylanstw__
...
