Gulliver Prep boys, Ransom Everglades girls win water polo titles for a Miami-Dade sweep
Miami-Dade County is the ruler of the Florida high school water polo world.
The Gulliver Prep boys hung on to defeat defending state champion Orlando Olympia 16-14 at Boca Raton High on Saturday in the second highest scoring boys’ final in FHSAA history.
The Raiders’ fourth championship and third since 2012 completed the sweep following the Ransom Everglades girls’ victory over Winter Park earlier Saturday afternoon.
Gulliver Prep (30-1) was in a back-and-forth game with the Titans with the scored tied 10 times.
The clincher came with 1:08 to play with a man advantage for the third time win the match. After missing twice to produce goals, Bruno Rebessi finally converted for a 16-14 lead. Rebessi finished with five goals.
“The last goal was so important because we were so frustrated on what we had been working on for so long,” said Gulliver Prep coach Carroll Vaughan. “We had some good looks on our previous man advantages, but the ball just wasn’t falling.
“Our forth title has been a lot of fun.”
Senior utility player Rene Peralta had a strong game with six goals, including a pair of goals in the fourth quarter.
“This win was very important because we have a young and talented team,” said Peralta. “All I wanted to do after I leave here was to start a dynasty.
“Our final goal was a stress reliever and I saw Bruno on the break I knew we had it.”
Led by junior attacker Preston Edmunds, Ransom Everglades rolled to its eighth state title since 2009 and first in four years following an 11-6 victory over Winter Park.
The eight championships is a FHSAA state record for girls’ water polo.
“This is amazing,” said Ransom Everglades coach Eric Lefebvre. “Each one has had it own story, own narrative. This year was about coming back after three years not being on top. Having the kids get the victory was rewarding.”
It was the Raiders’ fast start that dictated the outcome.
Emmanuelle Dooreck-Aloni had the first of her two goals only 1:08 into the match. By the completion of the first quarter the Raiders were up 4-0. Edmunds had three of her goals during a 7-0 run before Winter Park found the back of the net with 1:07 left in the first half.
“It was really important to have the start we did, mainly because we felt there had been a lot of teams that wanted to take us down because we have been a dynasty for so long,” said Edmunds. “We didn’t want them to think we were over-confident coming in.”
That fast start proved important at the Wildcats would outscore Ransom 6-4 the remainder of the game.
The Raiders were up 10-2 early in the fourth quarter as Winter Park fought back with four straight goals. Three goals came from Molly Banks, before Edmunds ended the scoring with 18 seconds left.
This story was originally published May 11, 2019 at 6:24 PM.