San Marino High School had gotten through all but one of its Rio Hondo League opponents in boys’ water polo as the league schedule reached the midpoint. To finish the first round of league unblemished, the Titans needed to knock off host Temple City, which was also undefeated in Rio Hondo play coming in.
After falling behind to a potent Ram squad, San Marino’s offense exploded in the fourth quarter only to see the match slip away in the cruelest of manners for a 15-14 loss at Temple City on Oct. 10.
The match was tied with less than a second left in regulation. Temple City was inbounding the ball from the deep right corner of the pool parallel to the goal mouth with 0.46 seconds to go.
It was barely time to blink, however, it was enough time for the official at the far side of the pool to identify a Titan foul and award the hosts a 5-meter shot for grabbing one of the Rams’ hands and pulling it down. The rest of the swimmers cleared the pool, leaving Patrick Jones and Titan goalkeeper Thomas Zhou. Jones fired the penalty shot to the right past Zhou, and the game was over.
“It’s rare for a referee to decide a game like that,” San Marino coach Robert Zirovich said.
San Marino had trailed 12-8 entering the fourth quarter before releasing the Titan counterattack to great success, tallying six goals in the first 3:43 of the period while holding the hosts scoreless.
The Titans won the opening sprint of the final frame and scored 27 seconds later when junior Nathan Chan assisted Kevin Benitez for a goal. Just 27 seconds after that, junior Nathan Chan assisted freshman Nathan Chan for a goal on the counterattack. Another 27 seconds went by before Titan Howard Huang, after leaving early on the counter, scored the first of his four consecutive goals in the period. Huang scored again 23 seconds after his first goal on a counter via a long outlet pass to tie the contest.
San Marino then took the lead for the first time since the opening quarter when Huang scored again on the counter, spurred by a long outlet pass from Zhou. The advantage stretched to two just 23 seconds later when Huang scored again off the counter, outmaneuvering the lone Ram defender in his way for a goal to put the visitors up 14-12 with 3:17 remaining.
The lead lasted into the final minute but was cut in half on a long-distance shot by Ram Marcus Dorado that found the back of the net with 54 seconds to go. San Marino then turned the ball over on an errant pass, leading to Ram Ryan Wang scoring from in close range to tie the game with 42 seconds to go.
“Counters really got us going, but a few critical mistakes at the end and it fell apart,” Titan captain Daniel Chen said.
As the clock neared zeros, a final Titan shot by Benitez was saved, and after that, a shot by Jones was knocked away from the cage by the Titans before sailing out of the back of the pool with 0.46 seconds remaining.
“It was great to see the boys dig in and come back. The counters we had at the end were spectacular. The boys did a great job finding the open man. Howard did a great job creating,” Zirovich said. “Just a tough loss.”
Huang shared game-high honors with five goals, a total matched by teammate Diego Joaquin Garcia. Freshman Nathan Chan had two goals, while Benitez and Chen each scored once.
San Marino scored the first goal of the game when Garcia swam in on the right and put away a shot inside the post from a tight angle 1:13 into the match. The Rams tied the contest, but Garcia responded with a skip shot for a goal 19 seconds later. The Rams scored the next two before Garcia leveled the contest at 3-3 with 2:16 to go. The teams exchanged goals the rest of the way as Huang and freshman Nathan Chan each answered a Ram score to make it 5-5 after the first quarter.
The hosts dominated in the second quarter, winning the frame 5-0 to carry a 10-5 advantage into the break. In the third quarter, Temple City struck first, but the Titans netted the next two goals on a successful 5-meter shot by Garcia and a goal by Chen off a long outlet pass. The Rams scored once more in the period before Garcia scored the final goal of the third with 1:23 remaining, leading to the dramatics of the final period.
Regardless of the outcome, it was a good experience playing in the Rams’ pool, which is the biggest in the league and meets CIF requirements for postseason play.
“It’s great experience for us to play in a pool like this,” Zirovich said. “These are the games where CIF is played, [in] a 25-meter pool. So, it’s positive. We need more experiences like this.”
The Titans (13-7 overall, 5-1 in league) will visit South Pasadena for a league game on Oct. 19 before hosting Blair High of Pasadena on Oct. 24. San Marino will conclude the regular season with a home matchup against Temple City on Oct. 26.
SAN MARINO 21, MONROVIA 4
The Titans snapped a four-game losing streak after routing visiting Monrovia in a league game on Oct. 12.
Huang racked up a game-high five goals, while freshman Nathan Chan contributed four goals. Junior Nathan Chan and Aidan Chan each scored three goals, Jonathan Zhang and Jack Li each chipped in two goals, and Benitez and Garcia each had one goal.
— Sebastian Moore contributed to this report.
First published in the Oct.19 issue of the San Marino Tribune
