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Stanford boys finish second, third in JO polo
Red 16s fall in title match, but Red 18s win third-place game in national tournament

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Jon Barnea and his Stanford Water Polo Club 16-under boys' water polo team played for gold, but settled for silver. Brian Kreutzkamp and his 18-under squad played for bronze and won it. While both teams should have been pleased with their finishes on the final day of the S&R Sport Junior Olympics at Stanford's Avery Aquatics Center, Kreutzkamp's team clearly was the happier of the two.

"We feel happy because we won our last game," Kreutzkamp said after his Red team finished the four-day tournament with a 6-1 mark after holding on for a 7-6 victory over San Diego Shores on Tuesday afternoon. "We had a group of guys who have been with the program a long time. It was nice to send our seniors out with a victory."

Before the 18s duplicated last summer's JO finish, the Stanford Red 16s played for the gold medal but came up short in a 7-5 loss to SET (Saddleback El Toro). It was Stanford's second loss to SET in its past four matches, leaving the Reds with a 6-2 mark and a touch of disappointment after the Platinum Division finale.

"It would have been nice to come back and repeat," Barnea said of last season's gold-medal finish in 16s. "We had our opportunities (but) . . . they beat us twice in this tournament. It wasn't a lack of effort on our part or a lack of desire. Maybe it was a lack of execution."

Stanford had lost to SET in Monday's quarterfinals, 7-4, which forced Stanford to win another match Monday night and then a semifinal game Tuesday morning to earn a rematch. Stanford did just that with victories over Rose Bowl (8-7) and SoCal Black (10-3) in the semifinals.

After solid performances in the previous two games, Stanford came out flat in the finale and trailed by 4-1 at halftime. Stanford's only goal was by Thomas Agramonte with just 29 seconds left before the half.

Agramonte scored in the third quarter and teammate Mark Garner added another score with 1:18 left in the period as Stanford climbed into contention at 5-3. When Philip Bamberg fired in a goal with 4:36 left in the fourth quarter, Stanford trailed by just 5-4.

That, however, was as close as Stanford was to get to the gold medal. SET converted a five-meter penalty shot with 2:16 to play and scored again with a 6-on-5 advantage with 1:27 left to make it 7-4. Bamberg took advantage of a man advantage with 27 seconds to play for a final goal, but it was too little too late. Bamberg and Agramonte each scored two goals with Garner adding one.

The two losses were particularly frustrating for the Stanford 16s, who won the U.S. Club Championships in Santa Barbara earlier this month and beat SET in the semifinals.

Other members of the Stanford squad were goalie Keegan Williams, Wade Avery, Dante Cavazos, Casey Fleming, Emilien Fritsch, Patrick Goodenough, Greg Guslani, Brian Morton, Colin Mulcahy, Connor Dillon, Peter Simon and Colton Valentine.

Just moments after the Stanford 16s' defeat, the Red 18s took to the pool and made up for a disappointing 11-6 loss in the morning semifinals to top-seeded SoCal Black.

Kreutzkamp knew his team had more depth, so he decided to throw as many bodies as possible at San Diego Shores in attempt to tire its players. Kreutzkamp started his second team in the first and third quarters and by the time his starters returned for the fourth period, Stanford held a 6-2 lead following goals by Paul Rudolph and David Culpan.

Scott Bishop scored for Stanford with 5:08 left in the game for what seemed to be a safe 7-3 lead. Stanford appeared to back off its aggressive approach, which allowed San Diego to score three unanswered goals at the end of the game. The last one came with 19 seconds left to play.

Miguel Martin de Bustamante scored two goals to lead Stanford's offense while Culpan, Rudolph, Mark Hudnall, Bishop and John Butler all added one. Scott Platshon started in goal and was solid throughout, after being pulled following one quarter in the morning semifinal.

For Kreutzkamp, the four-day tourney was a success. His team earned a medal and played both teams that reached the finals -- beating runnerup Lamorinda in the quarterfinals and losing to JO champ SoCal Black in the semis. SoCal Black won the title with a 10-8 victory.

Other members of the Red 18s were James Balassone, Robert Dunlevie, Matt Goodenough, Jed Springer, Connor Still, Alex Whittam and Ben Dearborn.

In other final-day contests Tuesday:

The Stanford White 18s finished 5-1-1 following a 7-6 victory over Regency at Palo Alto High; the SOLO 16s finished 4-3-1 after topping Huntington Beach, 8-5, at Menlo-Atherton High; the Stanford Red 14s capped a 6-2 tourney showing with a 12-5 triumph over Trojan at Sacred Heart Prep; the Stanford Red 12s dropped a 6-5 match to Foothill at Wilcox High and finished 2-5; and the Stanford co-ed 10s lost a 4-3 game to American River to finish 0-5.

The tournament takes a day off on Wednesday but will resume Thursday with the start of the girls' competition.

The Stanford Red 18s will play at Avery Pool against Los Angeles Water Polo Club (10:20 a.m.) and SET (1:40 p.m.). NorCal will play at Gunn High against Willamette (7:50 a.m.) and Davis (2:30 p.m.).

The top-seeded Stanford Red 16s will play at St. Francis High against American River B (7 a.m.) and NCSD (1:40 p.m.) while the NorCal 16s will take on American River A (12:50 p.m.) and Diablo A (4:10 p.m.) in the Lancers' pool. The Stanford White 16s will be at Menlo-Atherton for matches against Santa Barbara Water Polo Club (9:30 a.m.) and Xtreme (12:50 p.m.).

In the 14s, Stanford Red will face CVAC at 2:30 p.m. at Sacred Heart Prep after having a bye in the morning. At Stanford's Baker Pool, SOLO will face Santa Barbara WPC (7:50 a.m.) and NSD Stars (11:10 a.m.) while Stanford White will take on American River B (noon) and Los Alamitos (3:20 p.m.).

The Stanford 12s will play at Menlo College against SET (9 a.m.) and Newport (3 p.m.) to open the four-day tourney that concludes Sunday at the Avery Aquatics Center.


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