Dramatic finish give SHP polo Nor Cal title

It was the only lead of the game for SHP (24-6).

“I couldn’t believe we won that game,” Kreutzkamp said. “I don’t know if I’ve been a part of a game like that before.”

Gates Gamble, who scored a match-high four goals, scored two of them in the final minute to give the Gators the victory. His strike with 47 seconds left in regulation tied the score at 10-all, the third tie of the match.

And then, with the clock winding down, Gamble struck from the right point, finding the left corner of the cage with a second to play. The game-winner came when Kreutzkamp decided to pull goalie Murdoch Baker-Matsuoka to give SHP a man advantage on the final possession of the game.

“We pulled the goalie, which is, technically, a really dumb thing to do. At that time, a lot of people would be happy to take it to overtime,” Kreutzkamp said. “But we’d been working on a 7-on-6 play for weeks, but hadn’t used it. We thought, ‘What the heck.’ Like a football coach going for 2 to win it. Let’s try to win it.”

The play was set up for Gamble to make the decision. With Oliver Marcin drawing a double team in the set, Gamble had an opening, space, and a boatload of confidence to score the winning goal.

“It was just an amazing read by Gates. We ran the play perfectly. He made just a perfect shot,” Kreutzkamp said.

It was a gritty win for SHP, as Miramonte (24-7) scored the first three goals of the game. Gamble got the Gators on the board with his first goal with 1:39 left in the opening period, but the Matadors answered that to lead 4-1 at one period of play.

But the Gators found their rhythm in the second period. Clay Carrington, who has teamed with Gamble and hole set Marcin to give SHP its version of “The Big Three,” opened his scoring account with back-to-back goals, the second being on a 5-meter penalty shot that was drawn by Marcin, as the Gators cut their deficit to 5-3. SHP outscored Miramonte 4-3 in the period and still trailed 7-5 at halftime.

“[Miramonte] came out and overwhelmed us. I definitely thought we were in trouble. The plan was then to slowly chip away and be within a goal going into the fourth,” Kreutzkamp said.

But down only two at halftime, the Gators were back in it, already.

“(At halftime) it was like, OK, we’re fine now. We stopped the bleeding,” Kreutzkamp said.

Carrington finished off his hat trick as the Gators cut their deficit to 7-6 in the third period, but the Matadors kept SHP at arm’s length. Miramonte answered to push it lead back to two goals, but Marcin cut the lead to one, again, with his goal at the 3:02 mark of the third. Gamble then tied the score for the first time all game, 8-all, on his second goal.

But the Matadors regained the lead to take a 9-8 advantage into the final period.

Ryan Karr tied the match again for SHP midway through the fourth period, with Miramonte regaining the lead, 10-9, less than a minute later.

That set up the dramatic final minutes when the Gators dug deep and pulled out the victory.

“This, honestly, was the best championship game I’ve been involved with in the last 10 years,” Kreutzkamp said. “It was just really cool they way they (the Gators) worked their way back into the game.”

On the girls’ side, there was no Division I repeat for SHP (29-3), as the second-seeded Lady Gators fell to top-seed Carondelet (28-1), 10-6.