Kelsey O’Brien has become the go-to player when the game is on the line for the Santa Barbara High girls water polo team.
O’Brien stepped up not once, but twice on Thursday to help the third-ranked Dons beat No. 8 Edison 7-6 in the second sudden death overtime at the Irvine SoCal Championships.
O’Brien scored from near half pool with less than a second remaining in regulation to send the game into sudden-death overtime. She then delivered the game-winner in the second golden-goal period.
The win advances the Dons to a winner’s bracket game against sixth-ranked Foothill.
“I’ve been coaching 15 years and that was the craziest ending I’ve ever seen,” Santa Barbara coach Mark Walsh said of O’Brien’s end-of-regulation heroics.
O’Brien, who beat Los Alamitos on a last-second goal at Santa Barbara’s Tournament of Champions, caught a pass from Sophie Trabucco and released the shot on goal just before the final horn.
“The horn went off with the ball in the air,” Walsh described.
Trabucco got the ball with three seconds remaining after there was a miscommunication between two Edison players following a Santa Barbara turnover with five seconds left.
“I was hoping she would just shoot,” said Walsh of Trabucco. “Kelsey caught the ball and shot in one motion. The ball was hanging in the air as the horn went off. When it went in, the whole place was in disbelief. Sophie made a great pass and Kelsey made a great shot.”
O’Brien scored her golden goal off an assist from Charlotte Hendrix, who had just drawn an Edison ejection.
“She has a knack for it,” Walsh said of O’Brien’s clutch goal scoring. “She’s coming along. She’s a facilitator for our offense. She’s sharing a little more of the scoring, which is making it difficult for teams to defend us.”
O’Brien and Makenzy Fowler each had three goals and Jessica Gaffney scored a big goal on a rebound that tied the game at 5-5 with six minutes to go in the fourth period.
“She turned something out of nothing,” said Walsh.
Both teams failed to score on 6-on-5 situations during the first sudden-death overtime period.
In the Dons’ tournament opener, they defeated Long Beach Poly 11-5. Charlotte Hendrix had three goals and Betsy Hendrix scored a goal and dished out four assists.
The two wins improves Santa Barbara’s record to 17-6.
