Liberty water polo players pose with their runner-up plaque.
Liberty High came up just short in a wild overtime game Saturday, losing to Charter Oak 13-12 in the CIF-SS Division 4 water polo championship game.
The game, held at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut in a steady rain, featured leads that went back and forth. Neither team ever led by more than 2 goals. In the end, a one-timer off a deflection by Desmond Lopez with 1.3 seconds left in overtime was the difference.
It was a tough ending for the Bison, who finished the season with a 25-8 record. Emmit Mino led Liberty scorers with 3 goals, followed by Chase Mankin, Gavin Stephens, and Rylan Holloway with 2 each. Goalkeeper Matthew Huntsman made several outstanding saves.
Charter Oak took an early 2-0 lead, but the Chargers were never able to pull away from the Bison. Mankin scored near the end of the first quarter and the Bison trailed, 2-1. Liberty took a 3-2 lead in the second quarter but the score was tied at halftime, 3-3.
Liberty’s offense just missed on scoring attempts several times in the game when shots bounced off the crossbar. Meanwhile, Charter Oak took advantage of 4 penalty shots for goals. The score was tied 6-6 after the third quarter.
Charter Oak led twice by 2 goals in the fourth quarter, but again Liberty rallied. Holloway scored on a penalty shot to cut Charter Oak’s deficit to 9-8, and a floater by Stephens tied the score at 9-9. A goal by Mino with 1:20 left in regulation gave Liberty a 10-9 lead, but Charter Oak’s Hudson Cazier-Medina scored with a man advantage in the final minute and the game went to overtime, which consists of two three-minute periods,
Charter Oak took a 2-goal lead in the first overtime session, but the drama continued when the Bison scored twice in the second session on goals by Tanzel Neubauer and Cael Hansen to tie the score. The game ended, however, on Lopez’s goal in the final two seconds for Charter Oak.
“Getting to this championship game is a victory in itself,” said Liberty coach Hailey Badham. “These boys played their hearts out. A championship game is never easy; the entire game was a battle. One of my favorite things about these boys is they never give up, no matter what. They fought until the very last second. Going into double overtime tied; going down by 2 and then bringing it back to a tied game until the very last second … They are mentally the toughest athletes I have ever coached. I am more than proud of what this team accomplished this year and I truly hope they are too”
