Padres polo come up short in CCS DI final

But top-seeded Los Altos struck for the game-tying goal with 46 seconds left in regulation to tie the match at 6-all and then scored three times in two overtime periods to send the second-seeded Padres to a 9-7 defeat in the CCS Division I final at Sacred Heart Prep Saturday morning.

With the win, the Eagles advance to the Northern California regional tournament.

“We just gave them one too many shots,” said Serra head coach Tim Kates, who was looking to lead a second program to a CCS title after leading Menlo-Atherton to the Division I championship in 2019.

“It’s a little bitter right now because they wanted it,” Kates said of his team. “They’re an amazingly talented group.”

If nothing else, Serra (18-12) made Los Altos (22-8) work for the win after the the Eagles scored on their first eight shots in a 15-7 semifinal win over Sequoia Wednesday. But it looked like it might be Serra’s day when they scored a wild goal at the end of the third period.

With less than 30 seconds to play in the period, Los Altos was looking to take one last shot and goalkeeper Weston Carballar brought the ball to mid-pool, to either make a pass or fire a shot.

But Serra’s Reed Hagmueller met him at the halfway point and harassed Carballar enough that the goalie committed a foul to give the Serra a power play. But with only seconds left, there was no time to set up and Hagmueller fired on the empty net, with the ball floating over the goal line as time expired to give the Padres a 6-5 lead.

“I was just trying to take the ball,” Hagmueller said. “We were playing pretty good.”

Hagmueller would end up leading the Padres with three goals, all coming in the third period, and an assist.

“Reed is always huge, whether he’s scoring or not,” Kates said. “He has an insane shot.”

Blake Hagmueller added a pair of goals and an assist. Henry Graham had a goal and an assist for the Padre, Colin Wright added a goal and Sean Coffin had an assist.

Los Altos was led by Joshua Tang, who scored three times and assisted on a fourth.

The Eagles, however, turned up their defensive intensity in the fourth period, but Serra’s defense was nearly as good and neither team could find much room to maneuever.

With a little over a minute to play in the fourth period, Los Altos called timeout to set up a play. When they came back out, Serra decided to press the perimeter after spending most of the match sloughing off to crowd the inside and dare the Eagles to score from outside.

But that pressure gave the Eagles the opportunity they were looking for and they made the Padres pay. Joseph Tadros had the ball on the right wing when he spotted Tang stationed at the far left post. Tadros put a pass right on Tang’s hand and he buried the shot to tie the match at 6-all with 46 seconds left in regulation.

“You try to be as consistent as you can and sometimes you slip up a little,” Kates said.

That swung the momentum in the Eagles’ favor and they held on to it through two mandatory overtime periods. Los Altos took a 7-6 lead 47 seconds into the first, three-minute overtime period on a goal from Tadros, but Serra’s Blake Hagmueller responded with a goal in the hole set, off a dump in pass from Coffin.

The Padres did an excellent job of getting the ball into set all game long. They drew five exclusions for the game which led to the man-advantage and they capitalized three times.

“It’s just a matter of what the defense is giving you,” Kates said. “We honestly don’t run a set-oriented offense.”

But the Eagles scored twice over the final 99 seconds — the first coming from Colby Sims for an 8-7 lead and Tang gave the Eagles a two-goal cushion with 29 seconds left in the first overtime period.

In the second extra period, Serra could not manage a shot on goal and turned the ball over three times.

It was an exciting end to an exciting match that was nip-and-tuck the entire way. Serra took a 1-0 lead less than a minute into the match when Graham walked in from the right wing and buried a cross-cage shot to the far left corner for a power-play goal.

Los Altos tied it at the 5:25 mark of the first period, but Serra had another man advantage and it again paid off with Blake Hagmeuller scoring off an assist from twin brother Reed Hagmueller.

But in a sign of things to come, Los Altos scored with 14 seconds left in the period to tie the match at 2-all.

The Eagles took their first lead of the match, scoring on their first power play of the game with 4:32 left in the half. Serra tied it when Wright drew and converted a 5-meter penalty shot with 4:12 left in the second period.

Los Altos retook the lead with 1:43 left and led 4-3 at the break.

In the third period, Altos’ Tang pushed the Los Altos lead to two, 5-3, before Reed Hagmueller took over. He scored his first goal of the match in the set on a power play, taking a pass from Graham. His second goal with under a minute to play in the period tied it at 5-all and his wild, half-pool shot gave the Padres the lead going into the fourth period.

A lead they could not protect, however.

Despite the loss, the Padres were proud of how far they had come. They won their first West Catholic Athletic League match since 2021 and won their first CCS matches since 2015.

“Incredible season,” Reed Hagmueller said.