Boys water polo: Gators pull away from Lancers

Oct. 16--Nelson Perla-Ward kept giving Sacred Heart Prep-Atherton the needed insurance, but St. Francis-Mountain View kept answering with goals. Perla-Ward's fifth and final goal was the back-breaker as the Gators staved off the Lancers 11-7 in a West Catholic Athletic League boys water polo match on Wednesday evening.

SHP moved to 4-0 in the WCAL, 13-1 overall. The Gators endured their only defeat to Southern California power Harvard-Westlake of Los Angeles at a tournament this past weekend.

"I was proud of the way my guys hung together," SHP coach Brian Kreutzkamp said. "We were getting quality shots, but we had a lot of bad bounces. Benoit Viollier, their goalie, is a really good player. He's their best player in the water."

The Lancers (10-8, 4-1 WCAL) played well, but couldn't keep up the scoring pace with the swift Gators, who countered for a few of their goals. Even so, St. Francis was tied 4-4 early in the third period on a goal by Andrew Goodenough, who had a hat trick. A long-distance goal by the Lancers' Sean Elmurib with 6:02 left in the fourth period closed the Gators' lead to 7-6.

"Our boys played well," St. Francis coach Terry O'Donnell said. "There is a reason Sacred Heart Prep is 14-1. They're real opportunistic and have a lot of team speed. We had some good opportunities. We capitalized early, but struggled in the third quarter to put the ball away. When you miss a shot, they can have numbers going the other way real quick."

The Gators' Grant Harvey broke a scoreless tie with a rip-roaring shot with 3:18 to go in the first period. St. Francis went up 2-1 on a goal from Cade Curry at 5:12 in the second period. Perla-Ward's goal on a power play evened the score at 2-2 as the pace picked up.

"Nelson played well," Kreutzkamp said. "He earned a bunch of ejections, too."

"We're just trying to keep our game consistent," said Perla-Ward, who is getting interest from Cal, UCLA and Princeton, according to Kreutzkamp. "We want to play at a high level. We put the ball in the back of the net when we needed to."

Michael Swart's 5-meter penalty shot at the 2:33 mark gave the Gators a short-lived lead. Coming out of a timeout by O'Donnell to set up a play, Goodenough rifled in a power-play goal with 17 seconds left in the half.

"I guarded Goodenough a few times," Perla-Ward said. "He's a good scorer. You have to watch out for him."

Alex Tsotadze found the net for SHP early in the third period. Goals by Perla-Ward and Finn Banks made it 6-4 SHP, but Eric Reitmeir scored for the Lancers with 2:14 to play in the third period. A one-touch shot at 2-meter by Jackson Enright late in the quarter and SHP had a two-goal cushion at 7-5.

Perla-Ward put things out of reach with his fifth goal, the Gators up 10-7 with 2:01 left in the game. Swart ended the scoring with a goal with 1:25 to play.

Both goalies played well with Viollier stopping a 5-meter penalty shot by Perla-Ward with 2:34 left in the game, ending with five saves. SHP sophomore J.C. Marco recorded 14 saves, delivering his share of long lead passes to trigger the counter-attack.

"J.C. had been a little inconsistent, but he had a great game," Kreutzkamp said. "It's important he plays in these big games."

Email John Reid at jreid@dailynewsgroup.com; follow him at twitter.com/dailynewsjohn.

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