Hamlet Nalbandyan
LA CANADA HIGH -- Teams have figured out what it takes to contain the
La Canada High girls' water polo team's offense: stop Coral Cozad.
Sherman Oaks Notre Dame tried to do just that, but couldn't get the
job done, as Cozad dominated from her hole position to lead the Spartans
to a 14-9 victory in Mission League play at La Canada High Tuesday.
The senior scored a match-high six goals as La Canada improved to 2-0
in league and 7-5 overall.
"Coral had a good game out of the hole. She got good shots off,
despite the fact Notre Dame did a good job of shutting her down," said La
Canada Coach Mary Holt.
"They double teamed Coral a lot in there, but we proved to have good
outside shooters and made them pay."
The outside shooters that came through for La Canada were Julie
Pereyra, Annie Howard and Mariah Zebrowski.
Howard scored three goals and Pereyra and Zebrowski each added two.
"Our offense was pretty good today. With the two-week layoff during
the winter break, we didn't practice as a team. This wasn't our best game
and it wasn't our worst game either. We just need to get stronger with
each game," said Holt.
The Spartans got off to a good start in the first quarter. La Canada
got off 10 shots on goal as four different players scored.
Notre Dame (5-6, 0-1) scored on both of its shots in the first and
led, 2-1, with 4:54 left. But it would never lead again as La Canada
followed with a 7-0 run.
Cozad scored four of those goals, including the first two to open the
second quarter. Pereyra also had two goals as La Canada led, 6-2, after
the first.
The Spartans dominated the first half, outshooting the Knights, 20-7.
But La Canada led just 8-5 at the half as Notre Dame scored three
unanswered goals to close the half.
La Canada opened the second half scoring two quick goals to grab a
10-5 lead. Cozad and Howard each had two goals in the quarter as the
Spartans left the third leading, 12-7.
The teams struggled in the fourth as neither scored until the Knight's
Cindy McGee scored at 1:39. But Zebrowski and Howard scored within the
span of 30 seconds to put the game away.
"The flu hit as hard, as it did to pretty much everyone. Julie played
with the flu today and almost everyone was sick over the holidays, so
that had an effect in our performance today," Holt said.
Notre Dame was led by McGee, who scored a team-high four goals.
Samantha Zuckerman added three goals.
