Santa Barbara High was just a couple of minutes away from beating the top-ranked boys water polo team in Division I.
The Dons led Los Alamitos for over 25 minutes in the semifinals of the South Coast Tournament Saturday, but Griffins star Austin Trinkle scored goals with 2:30 and 1:45 to sink the Dons, 4-3. Santa Barbara went on to defeat Foothill 11-10 in the third-place game on a Brandon Cowan goal with 16 seconds left. It was Cowan’s third goal of the game.
“This tells us that we can play with anyone in our division, but the scores were so tight that it also shows that anyone can play with us,” said coach Mark Walsh, who also noted that the Channel League is by no means a lock with DP and Ventura in the mix.
The Dons had multi-goal performances out of five players against Foothill, a feat the team hasn’t achieved for two years. Cowan’s hat trick was complemented with two goals apiece by Lautaro Fesembeck, Brendan Kerwin-McElroy, Chris Dall and Ian Gamble. Walsh said that the play of Fesembeck and Paul Davis off the bench was key.
Santa Barbara had jumped out to a 3-0 lead over Los Alamitos in the first quarter of the early match, but couldn’t find the back of the net after that.
