After four tries, the Malibu High School boys water polo team is finally a California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Southern Section champion.
The top-seeded Sharks clinched the title with a 10-7 victory over No. 2 Segerstrom of Santa Ana in Saturday’s Division VI final at William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center in Irvine.
The championship is the program’s first and snaps a trend of coming up just short. The Sharks were runner-ups in 2008, 2010 and 2013.
Malibu (24-4) has a spectacular record of 54-5 over the past two years. Despite going 30-1 one year ago and losing in the finals, the Sharks were not to be denied this time around.
They now have a CIF championship plaque in-hand and a CIF banner soon to be hung in the gymnasium. It is the school’s first CIF championship since the girls soccer team won a section title in 2010. “I guess the fourth time’s the charm, not the third,” Malibu coach Mike Mulligan said. “It feels awesome.
“I love these guys. They work so hard and they all came to play today. Every single guy came to play and gave 110 percent. They didn’t just rely on one guy.”
Senior Owen Franz anchored the offense with a game-high six goals, giving him 16 in the last two games and 151 for the season. He also had three steals.
“I can’t believe we finally did it,” said Franz, who was a member of last year’s squad that lost in the finals against Palm Desert.
“This is huge. Ever since freshman year, this has always been our goal, to win CIF. Last year was a huge upset and we lost a lot of seniors, but we had a lot of guys step up this year.”
Goalkeeper Dax Nittolo was among those stepping up Saturday in a game that marked the Sharks’ closest margin of victory this season. The senior had 13 saves, including a blocked penalty shot in the third quarter.
“We’ve been lucky,” said Mulligan, head coach at Malibu for 24 years. “The last three games have been big games and our biggest guys came to play in those games. From the quarterfinals, to the semis, to today, our top guys had their best games of the year.
“Dax was huge today. He stopped that penalty shot and had some other big saves that changed the momentum. Dax is a presence in the goal.”
Malibu, which extended its winning streak to 14 games, entered the final having won each of its postseason games by at least nine goals.
The high-powered offense didn’t need long to get into gear against Segerstrom. Franz stole the ball near mid-pool and went on to score 30 seconds into the contest. His goal two minutes later provided a 2-0 lead.
The Jaguars tied the score with 2:27 left in the first period, but Phil Campanella scored seconds later to give the Sharks the lead for good.
Campanella finished with two goals. Teammates Freddy Keith and Jake Durrant added a goal apiece.
Franz’s fourth goal gave Malibu its biggest lead of the morning at 6-2 before the Jaguars scored three consecutive goals to close 6-5 with less than one minute into the second half.
Segerstrom missed two penalty shots in the third quarter to preserve a one-goal Malibu lead entering the final period. The Jaguars would again pull within one at 8-7 on a goal by Bodhi Schulz with 5:32 remaining, but that was the final score for the team that won last year’s Division VII championship.
Durrant restored a bit of breathing room by scoring amid a crowd of defenders in front of the net with 4:25 left.
Nittolo called the tight second half “a little scary,” but a good showcase for the Sharks’ all-around talent.
“It was really a team effort,” he said. “It feels great. Malibu’s been waiting for this for so many years. We did it for coach, for the alumni. We put so much time and effort into this and we finally did it.”
Dick Dornan contributed to this report.
