Buhach Colony’s Andrew Navarro trips up Atwater’s CCC water polo title hopes
Andrew Navarro had a singular purpose.
With the Buhach Colony High Schools boys water polo team already eliminated from postseason contention, the Thunder senior’s focus was beating crosstown rival Atwater for the first time in his career.
Spoiling the Falcons’ opportunity for a share of the Central California Conference title and possibly denying them a place in the playoffs were added bonuses.
Navarro scored three of his game-high four goals in the second quarter to lead Buhach Colony to a 7-4 victory on senior night.
The loss, coupled with Merced’s 12-8 victory over Golden Valley gave the Bears the outright title. Josh Fluetsch helped secure that crown with a seven-goal performance for the Bears.
“I really felt like we earned this one,” Merced coach Kit Gratton said. “We had maybe one easy conference game. Everything else was a battle every night. It feels good to come out on top.”
Turlock’s overtime victory over Pitman puts the Bulldogs in a second-place tie with Atwater. Since the two split the season series, a coin toss later this week will decide which advances to the playoffs.
There was no shortage of heroes for the Thunder (17-9, 5-5 CCC) as it limited the Falcons (12-9, 7-3 CCC) to their second-lowest goal total of the season.
Jonah Johnson (game-high five steals) and goalkeeper Brandon Gordian earned credit for that. Johnson shut out Atwater star Brody Patterson with stellar defense of the hole set. With the interior locked up, Gordian took care of everything from the outside, finishing with 17 saves.
“I felt like Jonah was their best player tonight,” Atwater coach David Svendsen said. “He neutralized Brody. He did a great job making him work. Brody is going to get his shots, but Jonah really made sure there wasn’t much on them.”
Defense dominated the first quarter as Navarro opened the scoring with 3:49 left, helping BC lead 2-1.
The Falcons answered in the second quarter, riding two Wyatt Pimentel goals to tie the game 3-3. Navarro countered, closing the first half with two unanswered goals to send the Thunder into halftime up 5-3.
“This is what we had to play for,” Navarro said. “I think all of us seniors came in focused on making sure we didn’t get swept by Atwater for a fourth straight year.
“I think scoring the first goal was huge. It got everybody fired up and we stayed fired up the rest of the way.”
Connor Norton trimmed the lead to 5-4 early in the third quarter. Noah Lamerson (three goals, two assists, three steals) put the match away, scoring goals on the same back-door play on two man-up opportunities.
This story was originally published October 30, 2014 at 9:53 PM with the headline "Buhach Colony’s Andrew Navarro trips up Atwater’s CCC water polo title hopes."