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Burnaby near sweeps water polo gold

The Burnaby Barracudas showed its dominance in water polo at the B.C. Summer Swimming Association provincial championships in Richmond.

The Burnaby Barracudas showed its dominance in water polo at the B.C. Summer Swimming Association provincial championships in Richmond.

The Burnaby club medalled in all five co-ed divisions, winning gold in four of the age-group finals at Watermania Pool last week.

T h e Barracudas started off with a gold in the under-12 age class, beating a combined Coquitlam and Port Moody entry 6-4 in the final.

Tied 4-4 heading into the final quarter, Sandro Miletic scored his third and fourth goals of the game to seal the win. Luka Maletic counted the other two markers for Burnaby.

Martina Blazevic, just six years old, was one of three underage girls on the Burnaby squad.

The u-14 'Cudas avenged an earlier loss to Abbotsford to win Burnaby's second gold medal with a 4-3 score in the B.C. final.

Reuel D'Souza broke the 3-3 deadlock with the game-winner. Gareth Jones and Luka Maletic also tallied for Burnaby.

Abbotsford defeated Burnaby 9-6 earlier in the tournament. Goalie Alex Kalajdzic played "lights out," said Barracuda head coach Patrick Geary.

Riel Antes, Sade Alexis and Isabelle Joaquin played solid defence for the winners.

U-16 call-up goalie Nabil Ali Mohammad held North Vancouver to just two goals in Burnaby's 3-2 victory in the u-18 final.

Henry Mackenzie scored a pair of first-half goals, while Amanda Haas got the game-winner with just two minutes remaining in the final quarter.

The win was the second over North Vancouver at the provicials. Burnaby defeated the North Shore club 6-5 to force a three-way tie after round-robin play, eventually moving into the final on a goals-against tiebreaker.

"The two teams were very evenly matched and the game very evenly played," said Geary of the final.

The u-16 Barracudas settled for a bronze medal following a 9-8 win in overtime over North Vancouver.

D'Souza, just 12, came up from the u-14s to score five goals, including the OT winner.

Leo Shen, Katerina Schwab and call-up Jones also scored for Burnaby. Jenna Melton was a force on defence for the Barracuda teens.

Burnaby avenged an earlier loss to Coquitlam at the regionals with a 3-2 win to advance to the consolation final.

The overtime win also erased the memory of a 7-4 loss to North Van at the provincials the day before.

Burnaby capped play in water polo with a 12-7 win over Haney in the open category.

Molly Gritchen, Danielle Robinson, Brandon Jung, Ashtyn Bevan and Kyle Yoshioka all scored two goals in the win.