Déjà vu for Laguna in loss

WALNUT “” The venue, Mt. San Antonio College, was the same.

The opponent, Montebello, hadn’t changed either.

And the Oilers’ senior goalie, Ely Bonilla, was showing some of the form that earned him CIF Southern Section Division III Player of the Year honors a year ago.

He made 11 saves, helping second-seeded Montebello top third-seeded Laguna Beach in the Division III semifinals for the second straight year, 10-5, on Wednesday night.

“I don’t have to worry about Ely being on,” said Montebello’s fiery coach, Kenny Clements, who led the Oilers to their seventh straight CIF division final.

“It’s his senior year and he’s been my starting goalie for four years. He won a title as a freshman, as a junior and hopefully we have a chance to win another one. Laguna Beach is good, they’ve got one of the best players in the division [Nolan McConnell] as a sophomore. He causes a lot of trouble for us and we have to look to help him, so that frees up cross passes.

“Ely’s not, you know, a God, he’s a human being. But where Ely goes, we go, that’s pretty much it.”

Those cross passes were working early on for the Breakers (18-12). After senior David Brunner scored on a six-on-five in the first quarter, senior Robbie Quellmalz scored on a quick pass from McConnell, giving Laguna Beach a short-lived 2-1 lead.

But Montebello (27-3) answered with two goals in the final minute of the quarter, one each from junior Rafael Romero and senior Jonathan Ruiz.

“Jon Ruiz, go!” Clements yelled, seconds before Ruiz found himself alone in front of the net on a counterattack.

The Breakers’ Quellmalz scored a power-play goal in the second quarter on a pass from junior Spencer Dodson, but that was sandwiched around three Montebello goals as the Oilers grabbed a 6-3 halftime lead.

Laguna had a chance on a power-play with 12 seconds left in the half, but couldn’t get a shot off. And the second half would be more of the same.

“I think our program’s getting better, I thought we were a better team this year than we were last year,” Laguna Beach Coach Ethan Damato said. “We’ve got to tip our hats to Montebello. They played a great game. They didn’t make many mistakes. In the first half, when they did, we didn’t capitalize on them.

“I’m really proud of our guys and the way that they fought for us all season.”

Quellmalz and Brunner each scored twice for Laguna Beach, and Tyler Mancuso added a fourth-quarter goal. Sophomore goalie Erik Henrikson had six saves.

But McConnell, the Breakers’ leading scorer with 110 goals, was held scoreless for the first time all season. Clements, whose team has beaten Laguna Beach five straight times over the last two years said that was part of Montebello’s game-plan.

“Some people have a philosophy in basketball that you let Kobe Bryant get as many as he can, and you let the other guys get nothing,” Clements said. “Not in water polo, because you don’t get to score as easy in water polo. In water polo, you try to hold the best player to zero goals and hope the rest of them can’t score on your goalie, especially if you have a good goalie.

“[McConnell] is an amazing player, he’s a playmaker and a scorer. You have to help, but you also don’t want to help, because if you help too much he’s going to pick you apart Most of their goals came off of him making plays happen, not shooting. He’s a team player.”

The Oilers built their lead as large as 10-3 midway through the fourth quarter.

“They can run a good defense because of their goalie,” Brunner said. “I think our offense started turning it over too much.”

Montebello sophomore Miguel Garcia had four goals, and Clements said he looks forward to the battles Garcia and McConnell might have over the next couple of years if the teams stay in the same division.

Damato said he has no qualms about the Breakers’ funk against Montebello.

“I don’t think it was us not being mentally strong enough to get the job done today,” Damato said. “We’ll play them 10 times. We’ll play them another five next year and we’ll play them in the semis again, we don’t care.

“We don’t care how many times they beat us in the regular season because the playoffs are four quarters.”

But for now, the Breakers were left to reflect on another successful season.

“We lost in the same spot last year but I think we’ve grown leaps and bounds as a program this year,” Quellmalz said. “We’ve dominated teams this year that we wouldn’t even have dreamed about last year. I’m really proud of what we did this year as a team.”