Although they managed to return to the Central Coast Section
playoffs for the first time since 2007, the San Benito Haybalers’
postseason bid was short-lived when it dropped its opening round
contest to Monta Vista by a 14-9 margin on Tuesday night in
Cupertino.
CUPERTINO
Although they managed to return to the Central Coast Section playoffs for the first time since 2007, the San Benito Haybalers’ postseason bid was short-lived when it dropped its opening round contest to Monta Vista by a 14-9 margin on Tuesday night in Cupertino.
The Balers, who earned the No. 12 seed after compiling a 13-11 overall record and finished in third place in the Tri-County Athletic League, fell behind No. 5 Monta Vista 3-0 after one quarter and 11-0 at halftime.
Although San Benito made a match of it in the second half against some of Monta Vista’s non-starters — cutting into the Matadors’ lead to make it 13-7 entering the final stanza — the convincing first half was all the Cupertino school would need in the end.
“They’re pretty solid,” said San Benito head coach Tom Agan, who immediately noted Monta Vista’s team speed on Tuesday night.
“The second quarter, we had trouble sticking with their counterattack,” Agan added. “We stopped moving on offense and they got the counterattack started and we were in trouble. Those two things spelled disaster.
“But our guys did the best they could. They did a decent job with that.”
As a result, Monta Vista (17-8) advances to Saturday’s quarterfinal round, where it will square off against No. 4 Serra (14-11). The Balers, meanwhile, wrap up their 2010 campaign with a 13-12 overall record, and will graduate four seniors, including Pat Maguire, Danny Jarrett, keeper Trevor Agan and Nick Angulo.
Angulo, in the final match of his prep career, scored four goals for the Balers on Tuesday.
“He had three driving shots in a row, just beautiful driving shots,” Agan said. “Nobody, I’ve seen this year, has the quality of driving shots he has.”
Teammate Josh Schafer added a team-high five goals in the match.
“He had some great shots, too,” Agan said.
Keeper Trevor Agan contributed seven saves in the cage.
The postseason news wasn’t much positive among the other member schools of the TCAL. On Tuesday, No. 9 Salinas, which finished runner-up in the TCAL, lost to No. 8 Gunn 16-11, while TCAL champion and eighth-seeded Carmel fell to No. 8 Willow Glen by a 10-8 margin in the Division II bracket.
For San Benito, although the end result was not what is was searching for on Tuesday, Agan felt simply qualifying to the CCS playoffs was an accomplishment unto itself.
“That’s an honor,” he said. “That’s not something a lot of teams accomplish.
“We’ll move on. We’ll try again next year.”
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
SB 0 0 7 2 9
MV 3 8 2 1 14
Note:
San Benito head coach Tom Agan noted the offseason opportunities like the Hollister Youth Water Polo Club, headed by Kristeena Bakke, which will hold a winter program again this year.
“There are opportunities for kids of all ages to get involved with water polo here in Hollister,” Agan said.
