Laguna polishes the Silver

A long season that began in May ended with a silver lining for the Laguna Beach Water Polo boys’ 12-and-Under team.

Laguna finished its season with a bang by not only competing at the Junior Olympics in Ontario, but powered its way to the Gold medal game. The locals ended up claiming the silver medal after being defeated in an All-Orange County final by Club SET, a team composed of players from Saddleback and El Toro.

Laguna fell in the division final, 9-5.

“I thought the team played above what they were expected to have played,” Laguna Coach Chad Beeler said. “The competition was tougher than we thought because some of the other teams did some recruiting between the qualifier and the actual Junior Olympics, and we stayed with our 100%, pure Laguna Beach Water Polo players.”

At last year’s Junior Olympics, a young Laguna team placed 18th in the 12-and-Under Division. But this year, Beeler felt the squad could content for a medal.

“I did expect to contend for the gold medal until I heard of the add-on players the other teams had,” he said. “After I heard about that, I was not so sure.

“There is a team out there called Club Split OC, and that is what they did. They split up some Orange County teams like Los Alamitos, Newport, Corona del Mar and Riverside, all teams in the same Zone as Laguna Beach, to make a ‘superstar’ team that still could not beat Laguna Beach or Club SET, who also had some kids from other teams on their team.”

Day One

Laguna took on Navy of Maryland and Rose Bowl Aquatics from Pasadena, scoring 34 goals in picking up two impressive victories the first day.

Laguna proved to be too powerful for the team from Maryland and sunk Navy, 19-3. Its offense continued to roll against Rose Bowl, which fell by a score of 15-4. In the win against Navy, Nolan McConnell posted six goals, Dylan Payne and Cade Montgomery each scored three, Camron Hauer, Robert Clemons and Nicky Brunner each scored twice and Riley Browne once. Caleb Scott posted three goals and Rian Atherton two in the win over Rose Bowl.

Moving On

As the tournament progressed, Laguna went up against more seasoned teams that were used to winning, including Lamorinda, a team Laguna defeated, 8-6, on the second day of the tournament.

In its next outing, Laguna won the battle of the beaches, downing Huntington, 9-4. In that win, Laguna scored six unanswered goals in the second period to break a scoreless tie. The six goals were a result of sharp passing, bullet shots from the outside, lob shots, back-hand shots, penalty shots and steals. The scoring was led by McConnell with four goals. Clemons scored three times and Browne and Brunner added one each.

Final Four

The four wins advanced Laguna to the semifinal round, where it faced its most severe test in perennial rival Club Split OC. In a defensive battle that dominated the four quarters, it took a last-second shot by McConnell to lift Laguna to a 2-1 victory and into the Gold medal match.

Laguna keeper Erik Henrikson turned away shot after shot by OC Split and the teams were deadlocked at 1 as time wound down. With four seconds to play, McConnell drilled in the game-winning goal from the outside to set off a celebration among the Laguna team and fans.

It was the second goal of the match for McConnell.

Title Tilt

In the division’s championship final, Laguna met up with its top rival, Orange County-based Club SET. Laguna gave coaches Chad Beeler and Nick McConnell an all-out effort, but SET began to pull away in the third quarter and emerged with a 9-5 victory to win the Gold medal.

Fall Forward

This Laguna team has fall competition to look forward to until the players move up to the 14-and-Under Division next year.

“From last year to now, the boys have learn what it takes to be the best,” Beeler said. “They all worked harder throughout this year compared to last year. Plus, to actually pay attention and improve just because they wanted to be the best, was a great thing to see. I can’t think of any other team out there that worked harder than the boys and girls at Laguna Beach Water Polo.

“The kids on the Laguna Beach Water Polo team have a lot of respect from me and my staff because these kids never once thought about going to a great team to be a part of.

“These kids made the great team and understand the meaning of loyalty and no matter how much they got beat in the past, never gave up and came back to be one of the best teams in the nation. To me, that is something to be proud of.”