Sports

Islanders Win in OT to Advance to Water Polo Title Game

The comeback victory sets up yet another Coronado-Bishop's championship battle.

Tell me if you've heard this one before: It will be Coronado facing Bishop's for a San Diego Section boys water polo title in Saturday's Division III final.

Patrick Geer scored his fourth goal of the game in the second overtime period and the Islanders held on for an 11-10 win over Cathedral Catholic Wednesday night at La Jolla High in a semifinal thriller. In the opener, Bishop's overpowered intracity rival La Jolla High 11-4 behind three goals each by Matt Michalko and David Higginson.

The Islanders and Knights will be meeting for the 14th time in a final, dating back to 1993 when a Division II was added in San Diego County. Both teams are now in the new Division III, and it's apropos that the first championship will be decided head-to-head by these longtime rivals.

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Defending Division II champ Cathedral Catholic took a 2-0 lead through one quarter before the Islanders scored four goals in the second period to pull even at the half, 4-4.

Third-seeded Coronado, now 15-12, opened the scoring in the third quarter, and the 5-4 advantage would be its only lead of the second half. The Dons scored twice to go up 6-5, and after Coronado pulled even at 6-all, Cathedral scored three of the final four goals in the period to take a 9-7 lead into the fourth quarter. Stephen Bilz had five of the nine goals for the Dons through three periods.

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Garrett Smerdon scored his third goal nearly two minutes into the fourth quarter to get the Islanders within one, then Geer tied it at 9-9 with 3:10 left to play. Neither team would score the rest of regulation, though second-seeded Cathedral hit the crossbar with both a shot and a rebound follow-up with about a half minute remaining.

Alex Greisen scored off the right post 30 seconds into the first three-minute overtime, giving the Dons their last lead. Nick Wiley scored with 23 seconds left to tie it again, setting the stage for Geer, who fired home what proved to be the game-winner 17 seconds into the second overtime. Coronado goalkeeper Garrrett Sabesky had several of his 10 saves down the stretch to preserve the win.

Coach Randy Burgess wasn't sure exactly what he told his players after Coronado found itself down by two with a period left to play.

"All I know is that I said they would have to pick it up and do the things that we'd been doing to win all season long," Burgess said. "Not to take anything away from the way Cathedral Catholic played, but we didn't play our best game out there tonight."

And Burgess knows Coronado will have to be at the top of its game if it wants to beat top-seeded Bishop's in Saturday's 5 p.m. final, again at the La Jolla High pool.


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