Spencer Kemp scored on a breakaway in the fifth overtime period, lifting San Marcos to a tense 11-10 win over Ventura in a key Channel League boys water polo game on Tuesday at Ventura.
The win keeps the Royals’ hopes alive for second place in the league. They are 4-3 in league with one remaining game at Santa Barbara on Thursday.
San Marcos recovered from a collapse late in the fourth quarter. They couldn’t hold a two-goal lead (9-7) in the last two minutes of regulation and fell behind in the first overtime period.
Shane Hauschild got the Royals even to force a second overtime. He had five goals in the game.
The defenses and goalies took over for the next three sudden-death OT periods. Then, with 38 seconds left in the fifth overtime period, Kemp got ahead of the pack on a counterattack and scored the game-winner with a lob shot.
“It was a great day of water polo and I was particularly proud of how our team fought until the very end,” San Marcos coach Jeff Ashton said. “After losing a two-goal lead with two minutes to play in regulation, and then getting scored on first in overtime, it would have been easy to roll over. But we never let up and believed in ourselves all the way.”
Ashton lauded the play of Kemp and Emerson Pizzinat, who scored three goals, two coming in the fourth period, and played good defense for entire game.
Goalie Jack Palmer had 13 saves for the Royals.
