San Benito defeats Salinas 9-7 for league championship
Monterey – When Live Oak left the Tri-County Athletic League and took its dominant water polo program with it, it opened up the possibility of winning a league championship to the rest of the league.
San Benito, which had routinely dropped tough title games to the Acorns, felt it was the team most suited to take over TCAL supremacy and the ‘Balers boys water polo team did just that with a 9-7 win over Salinas in Saturday’s title game at Santa Catalina.
“Honestly, I miss Live Oak,” head coach Tom Agan said after drying off from his victory dunk in the pool. “But it’s a pretty cool deal anytime you win a league title.”
San Benito opened the league season by beating the Cowboys and fully expected Salinas, with its unconventional defense where it stacks defenders in front of the cage, to be prepared for the rematch.
And the Cowboys showed in the first quarter that they were as they quickly jumped to a 2-0 lead.
The ‘Balers responded in the second quarter when Greg Valenzuela and Dave Smith both scored in a 52-second span midway through the period to tie it up.
The teams exchanged goals twice before the end of the half, with San Benito’s Rory Bloch firing in a goal with 14.9 seconds left to tie it at 4-4 entering the break.
The third quarter proved to be the crucial one. The ‘Balers James Schafer gave his team its first lead of the day when he scored three minutes into the period and one minute, 40 seconds later, Schafer scored his second of three goals on the afternoon to put San Benito up by two.
Twice in the fourth quarter the Cowboys trimmed the lead to one, but Schafer’s third goal with 3:42 left upped the lead to 8-6 and Smith scored his fourth goal of the game with 2:28 left to give the ‘Balers a three-goal lead that would be enough to deliver a league title.
“It means so much,” Schafer said. “Because we’ve had a few years when we came so close. We just stuck together and came through. It’s been our dream here.”
The good news for San Benito continued through Sunday, when the ‘Balers were awarded the No. 7 seed in the Central Coast Section playoffs and will get to play their first ever home playoff game when they host Lynbrook today at 4pm.
“That’s actually awesome,” Agan said. “I’m a little bit surprised and quite thrilled.”
Agan said he doesn’t know much about Lynbrook, but you have to respect any team that makes the CCS playoffs.
San Benito will hope to use the home-pool advantage to earn the school’s first ever CCS win in boys water polo.
“We feel pretty confident going into (today). We’re very concerned about (Menlo-Atherton) and rightfully so,” Agan said about the ‘Balers potential second-round opponent.
