11-10: Laguna Beach breaks away in triple-overtime thriller
A buzzer-beater by Ellis Minck and a sudden-death finish kept the Breakers alive against Huntington Beach.
By Takeshi Faure ·
The pool at El Toro High fell silent as the clock hit zero in the third overtime.
Laguna Beach’s Ellis Minck had just tied the game at 10-10 in the final second of the fourth quarter. That goal forced the match into two regular overtime periods and then a third, sudden-death round. The Breakers needed one more score to advance. They got it when junior Mason Jakle converted a pass from Minck to seal the 11-10 victory over Huntington Beach.
The win keeps the No. 3-seeded Breakers in the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs. Their record stands at 24-6. The team has now tied the school record for wins in a season, a mark set by last year’s squad. Laguna Beach next travels to Goleta on Tuesday to face No. 2 Dos Pueblos in the semifinals.
Dos Pueblos holds a psychological edge. They defeated Laguna Beach twice earlier in the season by a single goal. Those losses included the final of the Santa Barbara Invitational. Despite those setbacks, the Breakers believe they have corrected the errors that cost them those matches.
The path to the win was messy. Huntington Beach led 8-6 with one minute left in regulation. Senior Zach Hornstein stole the ball to start the comeback. Senior Finn Leverty then cut the deficit to one goal. The Oilers held the ball for the final 17 seconds, a strategy coach Nick Graffis called necessary to avoid a chaotic goal. Instead, the breakers moved the ball from the right side to the left, where Minck scored at the one-meter position.
The overtimes were tight. Warren Rootlieb scored first for Laguna in the first overtime. Huntington Beach’s freshman Zach Collins answered. Leverty restored the lead at 10-9. In the second overtime, Jackson Holmes tied the score with an outside lob after senior goalkeeper Henry Day was excluded. The sudden death began with a Huntington Beach sprint, but a Rootlieb steal led to a penalty shot for Laguna. Dane Seybold’s attempt was blocked, but the rebound set up a power play for the Breakers.
Jakle took the final shot. He had struggled earlier in the night, missing shots he usually makes. He said he tried to keep a short memory for his misses to maintain his confidence. Coach Camron Hauer noted that both Jakle and Minck wanted to take the decisive shots. Hauer said the team kept shooting despite hitting the crossbar and goal post repeatedly throughout the game.
Huntington Beach’s junior goalkeeper Van Johnston made 13 saves, including two on penalty shots. He held the ball for the entire final possession of regulation. Coach Graffis said his young team would use this game as motivation for next year. The Breakers are now 5-3 in one-goal games this season.
