Tolmie’s Saves Help Bail Out Buena in Win Over Malibu

MALIBU — Water polo Coach John Siman of Buena High wanted to give all his players some playoff experience.

He got his wish, but it almost cost his team a first-round playoff victory over Malibu on Friday.

The Sharks (19-3) scored four times against the Bulldogs’ second string in the last two minutes of the game, but Buena (15-11) held on for a 9-8 victory in the Southern Section Division IV playoffs at Malibu High.

“I was never worried,” Siman said. “I felt reasonably secure that we could pull it out.”

Goalie Curtis Tolmie, who has shown flashes of brilliance throughout, was at the top of his game. His 26-save effort forced Malibu players to alter their shots. Consequently, the Sharks made only eight of 43 attempts.

“He was a stud,” Malibu Coach Mike Mulligan said. “We were getting good shots but we kept hitting the posts.”

Tolmie had saves on nine of Malibu’s 11 man-advantage shots and also stopped a penalty shot on the last play of the third quarter.

Casey Willis led the scoring for Buena with three goals, including two in a 4-0 Bulldog flurry in the last two minutes of the third quarter that gave Buena an 8-4 lead.

With 4 minutes 21 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Buena increased its margin to 9-4 when James Hoover scored what was ultimately the winning goal.

The Bulldogs started slowly, apparently suffering from playoff jitters, and didn’t score until Brett Sanson received a pass at the two-meter hole and drilled it past Malibu goalie Brad Schmidt to knot the score at 1-1 with a minute left in the first quarter.