High School Roundup: Breakers edge Edison, 10-8

Laguna Beach High girls' water polo coach Ethan Damato had said that if the Breakers were to develop into a team that knows how to win the close games, it would have to learn how to finish.

Tuesday at the Ocean View High Aquatics Center in Huntington Beach, the young Breakers took the first step in that development.

Sixth-ranked Laguna trailed early against No. 9 Edison in an early-season matchup between teams ranked in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 poll. The Breakers rallied to take the lead by halftime, then withstood a third-quarter rally by the Chargers. They scored the final two goals of the nonleague game to come away with a 10-8 victory.

"The girls made some great defensive stops and had some big counterattacks, to finish," said Damato whose team, in its previous game, couldn't finish in a 9-8 loss at Santiago of Corona on Dec. 5. "I thought we did a good job, overall, but we still need to work on playing more consistent throughout the entire match."

The Breakers (2-1) got off to a slow start and trailed Edison, 3-2, after one quarter. They picked up the pace, both offensively and defensively, in the second quarter where they shut out the Chargers and went into halftime with a 5-3 lead.

Edison (3-5) rallied to tie the score at 5-5 in the early stages of the third quarter, and the teams were dead-locked one final time at 8-8 with 1:27 remaining in the game. Brighid Burnes, who led all scorers with six goals, scored her final goal on a skip shot. The go-ahead and winning score came with the Breakers in a six-on-five advantage and with 48.6 seconds left.

Thirteen seconds later, Mackenzie Baldridge came up with a steal near mid-pool, fed Lexi Del Toro, and Del Toro then sprinted the rest of the way and sent a shot into the right corner of the Edison goal. The score put the Breakers up, 10-8, with 27.8 seconds to play.

Jenna Knott, who played in the Laguna cage the second half of the game, blocked a shot attempt by Edison's leading scorer, Sabrina Jensen (three goals), with seven seconds left.

Freshman Holly Parker, in her first varsity minutes, played in goal in the first half for Laguna.

"I thought Holly did a great job. She's very talented," Damato said. "Jenna had some nice stops there at the end for us."

Laguna travels Friday to take on Mater Dei in a 4 p.m. nonleague game. Next week, the Breakers play host to San Clemente in a 4 p.m. nonleague game on Wednesday.

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Girls' Soccer