Inches and the Clock Run Out for Bonita Water Polo Team

Coach Ashby uses a timeout to set up a play.

It was only fitting that two of Bonita’s big-game seniors would be the last two Bearcats players to handle the ball. With one second left on the game and potentially season-ending clock, and Bonita down 5-4 to Troy, goalie Joe Lamson unselfishly tossed the ball into Alec Williams who fired wide right of the goal as time expired. It was an impossible attempt, a hail Mary given the lack of time, but if any duo could do the impossible, it was those two.

“I thought Alec Williams played fantastic today,” coach John Ashby said. “In my mind, he was one of the top players in our division, if not the area as well. I couldn’t expect anything more out of him. And he really wanted it.

“Joe Lamson, our senior goalie, he came up with some huge blocks. A lot of the goals Troy scored today were off rebounds. He made the saves, but they just got a goal off of a rebound. You can’t do a lot about that.”

Both teams came out a little tight in the first quarter. Troy’s Kilian Condon finally broke the ice with 2:17 remaining in the first. Michael Franco helped Troy push the score to 2-0 with 32 seconds left in the first, scoring at point blank range in front of the Bonita net.

Troy may have reputedly lost its best player, but Troy's Kilian Candon, No. 7, more than picked up the slack.

In the second, it was Williams showing his senior leadership, scoring two goals on assists from Kevin Webb and Keaton Renta.

However, the biggest roar from the crowd came with the ejection of Troy’s Josh Stedmen, who drew his third major late in the second period. It looked as if Bonita had stemmed the tide, first by playing tough defense when it had to keep Troy from expanding its lead, and second, with the dismissal of reputedly its best player.

Perhaps, Bonita should have been leading instead of just tied at the half. Several shots on goal flirted teasingly with the net, tipped tantalizingly away at the last second or striking a side or crossbar.

“You hit a bar instead of hitting inside a bar,” Ashby reflected after the game. “You throw the ball two inches too high …  it always comes down to inches in this game, and they just got a couple more inches than we did today.”

Again, the scoring came late in the third, and again it was Troy and Candon, who dumped in three of Troy’s five goals. Bonita missed a two-on-one breakaway opportunity — a missed opportunity made more painful after Troy’s Austin Lee netted another goal with 47 seconds left in the period, giving Troy a 4-2 margin, heading into the final quarter.

All eyes are on Bonita's Alec Williams before he scores on a penalty shot to bring the Beacats within one goal of tying the score.

With Bonita fans watching the players and keeping an eye on the clock, Williams scored on a penalty shot to bring back Bonita within a goal, 4-3, with 3:36 left. Troy, however, scored just 17 seconds later. With the goal, Troy and its large crowd that drove up from north Orange County could sense the upset.

Sensing the urgency, Bonita fired right back, with Renta scoring on an assist from Williams. With 50 seconds left, Troy went in to keep-away mode before firing at the goal to beat the shot clock. The ball ricocheted off the sidebar and Troy got the ball back, and with it, the right to advance to another round of CIF playoffs.

All that remained for Bonita was one second on the game clock. That’s when Williams and Lamson, against all odds, tried the impossible, a desperate last shot to tie the game and send the season into overtime.

Inches — and in this case a second — was the difference between winning and losing – a life lesson that the younger players will use as motivation for next season and the graduating seniors will use to conquer even bigger milestones in the future.