cif southern section

The champ fell, but only grudgingly Saturday.

The defending champion Agoura High boys' water polo team, facing the challenge of top-seeded and top-ranked Arroyo Grande, didn't cede its crown lightly. The Chargers scored the first four goals, rallied to take a one-goal lead in the fourth period, then lost a close decision down the stretch, 14-12, in the quarterfinals of the CIF-Southern Section Division IV playoffs at Agoura High.

David Sparks scored a match-high seven goals for Agoura, but it wasn't enough. Arroyo Grande got five goals from Jesse Gillespie, three goals from Patrick Cullen and two apiece from Michael Benaron, Eric Marsh and Derek Lange to advance into next Wednesday's semifinals at UC Santa Barbara.

Arroyo Grande improves to 26-3, while Agoura finishes its season at 21-10.

After graduating 13 seniors and all seven starters from last year's CIF-SS championship team, the Chargers appeared to be a long shot to repeat. But they nearly pulled off a huge victory.

"I'm absolutely proud of these guys," said Agoura coach Dustin Litvak. "Not a lot of people gave us much of a shot this year, considering all the people that we graduated. But here we were, and we played a great match today."

Sparks, a senior, prepped for the matchup by studying film of last year's championship game and the play of graduated star Peter Kurzeka. Turns out, he gave a pretty good impersonation.

"I watched Peter on film and how he scored his goals," said Sparks. "I wanted to give the team a lift today."

Agoura came out firing, building the 4-0 lead on Sparks' close-in goal with 3:14 left in the first period. Sparks, in fact, tallied three of his team's first four goals to ignite the quick start.

Arroyo Grande regrouped.

The top seed cut the lead in half by the end of the first quarter, and tallied four of the first five goals in the second period to grab a 6-5 lead. By halftime, Arroyo Grande held a 7-6 edge, converting a penalty shot by Gillespie with 35 seconds remaining.

Arroyo Grande coach Steve Allen was expecting a tough match.

"We know how tough it is to play in their pool," said Allen. "We're used to bigger, better lit pools and they (the Chargers) were obviously ready to play. We settled down and got into our offense. Thankfully, we started playing defense."

Sparks scored the only goal for Agoura in the third period and its first goal in the fourth period on a power play that knotted the game at 8-8 with 6:07 left in regulation.

Trailing 9-8, Agoura got the equalizer when hole player P.J. Iannone back-flipped a shot past Arroyo Grande goalkeeper John Kullman.

Agoura grabbed a 10-9 lead on James Altmann's long-range shot with 4:53 remaining.

Thereafter, Arroyo Grande's array of big, physical scorers finally made the difference.

Gillespie scored the tying goal for Arroyo Grande just 13 seconds after Altmann's score, then gave his team the lead for good on a long shot with 3:43 left. Cullen's goal just 36 seconds later, with the man advantage, upped the lead to 12-10.

Leading 13-11, Cullen sealed the verdict for Arroyo Grande with a close-range goal with 34 seconds left.

"We've been thinking about making it back to the finals for a whole year," said Sparks. "We played well and did what we could. We just came up short."