SOUTHERN SECTION WATER POLO FINALS : DIVISION III : Petersen Finds the Net to Help Costa Mesa Take Title

LONG BEACH — Cary Petersen, captain of the Costa Mesa water polo team, is legally blind.

Trabuco Hills tried to take advantage of that fact by not guarding Petersen too closely in the Southern Section Division III title match Wednesday.

Try again. Petersen scored a season-high three goals to help top-seeded Costa Mesa beat Pacific Coast League rival Trabuco, 14-9, and win the school’s third water polo title.

Costa Mesa won the 2-A championship in 1986 and ’87 and reached the finals in 1990, when Petersen was a sophomore reserve.

Costa Mesa (24-8) took a 4-0 lead in the first quarter, but Trabuco Hills scored the first two goals of the second quarter to draw closer.

Trabuco Hills then left Petersen open from six meters and he scored.

Petersen, whose eyesight started failing inexplicably about five years ago and who can only see blurry images, said his vision was worse than normal because of something that happened earlier in the match.

“At the end of the first quarter someone poked me in the eye with a finger and I basically couldn’t see the rest of the game,” Petersen said.

Then how did he score three goals, to share the team lead with J.R. Porter and Sam Grayeli?

“When you are not used to being able to see well, seeing a little worse doesn’t hurt too much,” he said.

Trabuco Hills (20-11), in only its second playoff appearance, cut the Costa Mesa’s lead to 9-7 on a man-advantage goal by K.C. Nance with 2 minutes 26 seconds left in the third quarter.

However, Porter and John Naigle scored consecutive goals at the end of the quarter to give Costa Mesa an 11-7 lead and Trabuco Hills never challenged after that.