Breakers hang on

LAGUNA BEACH — After nearly giving up a five-goal lead Wednesday afternoon against visiting Agoura, the Laguna Beach High girls’ water polo team knew it had to respond.

It was nervous time for the Breakers.

“It was a little bit of a brain-fart,” sophomore Yoshi Andersen said. “Well, there must be a better way to say that.”

The terminology worked just fine but the Breakers had to work hard, too, to make sure Agoura didn’t steal the game. Laguna Beach, ranked No. 2 in the CIF Southern Section Division II poll, rallied back to claim a 10-8 victory over No. 5 Agoura.

The win came a day after the defending CIF champion Breakers scored an equally impressive win over Edison, 6-4.

Big performances abounded. A day after getting a goal and five steals in the win over the Chargers, Andersen backed it up with a team-high four goals against Agoura. Laguna Beach (3-0) needed every one of them. Their 9-4 lead late in the third quarter suddenly shrank to 9-7 in a matter of minutes, after Agoura’s Callan Edwards scored a power-play goal with 11 seconds left in the quarter.

“We were trying to press instead of dropping more, so we could move the game along faster,” Andersen said. “Then we got in a little funk and they took advantage of it.”

But the Breakers did respond. Senior Lexie Ross’ sweep shot from set helped Laguna bring its lead to 10-7 with 3:56 left. Agoura scored again, but couldn’t get closer.

An Agoura penalty shot with two minutes left went off the left bar, and the Breakers secured the victory.

“We kind of relaxed in the third quarter a little bit, and momentum changes,” Breakers Coach Ethan Damato said. “It’s a game of runs. They made their run a couple times at us. We were up 3-1, they made their run. We were up 9-4, they made their run. We answered when we needed to. Obviously I don’t like to give up a 9-4 lead, but right now we’ll focus on the win.”

Ross, the Stanford commit, scored twice in the game. Juniors Riley Duncan, Jessie Holechek, Jessica Shusko and Lida DeGroote scored a goal each.

Defense was the name of the game against Edison, as Laguna earned a 6-4 win. The Breakers held the Chargers to one goal in the first half.

Junior goalie Etianne Manetta had a standout game, with 18 saves, and defender Shusko helped limit the effectiveness of UC Irvine-bound Edison senior Danielle Warde and sophomore phenom Alys Williams.

“We focus a lot on defense,” Manetta said. “You have to get everybody’s back. Anybody who needed help, we always had girls coming back to help them out. It was a ‘help your teammates out’ kind of defense.”

Laguna never trailed the game. With the score tied, 3-3, in the fourth quarter, the Breakers got a break when Duncan’s shot went off the arm of Warde and into the net.

Warde scored to tie it again, but Laguna freshman Lexie del Toro drew a five-meter penalty shot that teammate Holechek converted for a 5-4 lead with 2:03 left.

“It was an incredibly gritty performance,” Damato said. “We got some lucky ones, but I felt like when you’re playing that hard, you get the lucky breaks.”

Andersen added the final goal after Edison took its goalie out.

The Breakers’ tough early-season schedule continues Tuesday, when they visit San Clemente, which is No. 5 in the Division II preseason poll. Laguna plays host to defending Division I champion Dos Pueblos on Dec. 29 and the annual CdM/Newport-hosted Holiday Cup, which features most of the top teams in Southern California, begins the next day.

Manetta said she’s excited about the team’s prospects.

“We’re a really well-rounded team,” she said. “We have a bunch of utility players who can fill in whatever position you need them to play in, and they do it very well. We’re missing our seniors who graduated last year, who were a very significant part of our team, but everyone stepped up this year to fill in that gap.

“I’m really excited. I really hope that we can go to the final game of CIF again this year. That’s our main goal, what we’re working toward. I think we’re going to do really well.”