Back-to-back titles for Burlingame girls' water polo

But they scored four unanswered goals in the third period on their way to a 6-4 win that all but wraps up the 2022 Bay Division crown, giving them the season sweep of the Bears.

Burlingame (8-1 PAL Bay) has a match against Notre Dame-Belmont Thursday to close out the regular season. The Panthers beat the Tigers 16-1 on Oct. 4.

Burlingame head coach Perry Wu, however, was not about to count his chickens before they hatch.

“I’m not going to jinx it,” the first-year coach said. “I don’t want to underestimate any opponent.”

Don’t tell that to the Burlingame players, however. The Panthers certainly celebrated like they clinched the title.

The win was especially sweet considering the way Burlingame did. A year ago, the Panthers could not have imagined winning a game without a huge match from Natalie Sullivan Wu, who was named the 2021 San Mateo Daily Journal Girls’ Water Polo Player of the Year.

Tuesday, however, Sullivan Wu was shut out. But that didn’t prevent the rest of the Panthers from stepping up and filling in.

“We designed our offense so as not to be focused on [Sullivan Wu],” said Coach Wu, Natalie’s father.

“We intentionally run an offense where we have several options. Fortunately our second and third options were pretty great.”

Burlingame trailed 2-0 at halftime, but Coach Wu wasn’t too worried.

“I wasn’t concerned,” Coach Wu said. “We played well (in the first half). We had a lot of good shots. All I can worry about is execution, not the score. We were executing well.”

Sullivan Wu had her chances, especially in the first period, but she just could not find the range. She misfired on a shot in front and later shot a 5-meter penalty wide.

But Sullivan Wu is about more than just her offense. She is an all-around performer and she did other things to help her team win. She did earn an assist on the goal that put the Panthers ahead to stay and she also had two steals.

Lily Hartley and Gizel Ortiz both scored twice to lead Burlingame, with Alex Gratch and Kelsey McDonald rounding out the scoring.

M-A (7-2) got a pair of goals from Scarlett Shenk, and one each from Amelia Peyton and Betsy Wall.

M-A scored both its first-half goals in the first period, with Peyton giving the Bears a 1-0 midway through the opening quarter and Shenk doubled the score about a minute later.

Neither team managed to find the back of the net in the second quarter as the defenses took over, with the Panthers squandering several quality scoring chances.

Burlingame kept up its tough defense in the third period and the Panthers offense finally came around. They got on the board less than 30 seconds into the second half, with Gratch firing home a shot from the left wing to the far right corner of the cage to cut the M-A lead to 2-1.

The match was tied less than a minute later when Ortiz buried her shot from the hole set.

Midway through the third, Burlingame took the lead for good. Sullivan Wu had the ball on the left post, with a pair of M-A defenders, plus the Bears goalkeeper, keeping a close eye on her.

Sullivan Wu bided her time before making a pass in front to a wide open Ortiz, who simply tapped the ball into the empty net for a 3-2 Burlingame lead.

The Panthers made it 4-2 on a McDonald goal off a Gratch assist with 28 seconds left in the third.

Burlingame pushed its lead to 5-2 on Hartley’s backhand shot less than a minute into the final period, converting a Gratch pass.

But the Bears had one last gasp. Shenk used a power move in the set to get free and bury her shot to cut the Burlingame lead to 5-3 with 5:04 to play and Wall converted a Shenk pass in with 3:43 to play to close to 5-4.

But Hartley iced the win for Burlingame, lobbing the M-A goalkeeper on the left post for the 6-4 advantage with 40 seconds to play.

“We had a lot of kids step up,” Coach Wu said.