Serra denied water polo title again

“We played a great game against a good team,” said Serra head coach Tim Kates. “It was one of those games that could have gone either way.”

It was the second straight year Serra (18-12) made it to the Division I championship game after a 30-year absence. But in an eerie coincidence, Serra lost the 2024 title in much the same way: a 9-7, overtime loss to Los Altos.

For Mitty (19-10), it was its third finals appearance in five seasons and the Monarchs finally broke through. Other than the second period, when Serra scored six times, the Monarchs defense kept the Padres’ offense in relative check.

If the Padres simply could have bottled whatever was working in the second period for the rest of the game they could be hanging their first polo banner because Serra simply overwhelmed Mitty in that second stanza, outscoring them 6-2.

Serra had led 1-0 and 2-1 in the first period on a pair of power-play goals from Ryan Coffin, but Mitty still managed to take a 3-2 lead after the first period.

Serra tied the game on its third power play of the half, with Colin Wright picking up the first of his five goals.

Wright, again, shouldered the Padres’ offensive attack, finishing with five goals and four assists.

But it was spectacular goal from Andre Timar that seemed to spark the Padres. On an outlet pass from goalie Rhys Salma, Timar was one-on-one with a defender. He used a couple of barrel rolls to keep the defender off balance and as Timar was underwater, fired off a shot and scored to put the Padres up 4-3. A Wright goal from the left wing gave the Padres a two-goal lead, 5-3. Wright then converted a 5-meter penalty shot and then added Serra’s fourth man-advantage goal of the half before Tyler Krueger rounded out the first-half scoring for Serra, giving the Padres an 8-5 advantage at the half.

But in the final two quarters of regulation, the Mitty defense shut down Serra, limiting the Padres to just one goal in both the third and fourth periods. Serra managed to maintain a two-goal lead for much of third, sandwiching a Timar goal around a pair of Mitty strikes as Serra held a 9-8 advantage going into the fourth.

Serra scored its fifth power-play goal of the goal to open the fourth, with Wright quickly firing home the Padres’ 10th goal for a 10-8 advantage. And it looked like it might be Serra’s day when Salma blocked a penalty shot from Tucker Gavin to preserve a 10-9 Serra lead.

Salma finished the match with 17 saves.

It was a rare stop of Gavin, who sniped his way to a match-high six goals as he lit up the Padres defense from distance, scoring all six of his goals from the point.

But the Padres could not nurse that one-goal lead to the finish line. They almost got there, however, but Mitty earned a power-play chance with 20 seconds left in regulation and the Monarchs converted with Gordon Vernooy slamming home the game-tying goal with 18 seconds left to tie the match at 10-all.

Serra, which finished the match with six power-play goals on seven chances, opened the first overtime period with its final goal with the man-advantage for an 11-10 lead.

But a goal from Gavin followed by a power-play strike from Bryce Rappaport gave Mitty the lead for good, 12-11. Gavin then iced the game with his sixth goal of the match with 14 seconds left, making Timar’s goal with six seconds remaining irrelevant.

Kates said he didn’t believe his team could have played much better and credited Mitty with just being better Saturday.

“I don’t think we beat ourselves,” Kates said.