Sports

Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008

Arroyo Grande boys water polo goes down in CIF semifinals against Cerritos

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The semifinals remain the glass ceiling for the Arroyo Grande boys water polo team.

After bowing out in the CIF-Southern Section Division IV semifinals a year ago, the Eagles did what they could to not only advance to the finals this season but perhaps win the program’s first divisional title.

They went overseas during the offseason, hoping to emulate teams that had done the same and come back champions. They had a rewarding regular season that crowned them as the top seed in the playoffs.

But the campaign ended Wednesday just where it ended in 2007, with a loss in the semifinals. This time it was a 12-10 loss to Cerritos, a team Arroyo Grande had beaten twice in close games this season.

But at UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday, the Eagles fell behind early and found it tougher going against a team that already had a working scouting report.

“I think that they were able to make some matchups that affected us on both sides of the ball,” Arroyo Grande coach Steven Allen said. “We had our chances, (we) just weren’t able to put the ball in the cage.”

After Cerritos took a 4-2 lead in the first period and carried a 9-6 lead into the fourth, the Eagles (27-4) did fight back to tie the score at 9-9 when Mikey Benaron beat a triple team at hole set to score with close to 4 minutes left in the game.

But Cerritos would score three unanswered goals before Arroyo Grande finally got back on the board in the final minute.

Senior Jesse Gillespie led the Eagles with five goals. Benaron scored three and Derek Lange added two. Pete Sirihanyakon paced Cerritos with five goals, and John Kullman had nine saves in goal for Arroyo Grande.