“When that last game comes, sometimes you execute perfectly, sometimes you don’t,” Enloe said. “There can only be one winner, but I can say I got a lot out of it, I know the other coaches got a lot out of it and I hope that the boys got a lot out of it.”

The Rams (19-14) have an outside chance of being invited to the Southern California Regionals, which start next week, with brackets scheduled to be announced Sunday. But if not, it doesn't change how Enloe feels about his squad. 

“It’s been a true pleasure coaching these guys,” said Enloe, turning to address his team. “It’s an honor, a privilege, thank you guys so much for everything that you did, and go Rams.”

Trailing by three goals with 6:47 to play, Garces mounted a furious comeback.

It started with a goal off a 5-meter penalty shot by Johnny Mendiburu on his team’s next trip down the pool and continued when Josh Braun scored following a Rams’ timeout to trim the Golden Eagles’ lead to 9-8 with 4:24 left.

After a few near-misses and defensive stops, Johnny Starr tied the match with a shot to the bottom right corner of the net to send the Rams’ faithful into a frenzy with 2:44 left.

“We just returned back to our gameplan,” said Enloe of the rally. “We have kind of really been hitting our stride coming into the playoffs, and for whatever reason we kind of forgot some of our fundamentals, some of our key competencies that were really important. We got back to clicking on all cylinders and made sure we did everything that we’ve been working on. It’s a simple game and if you forget some things you get in trouble.”

Garces had its chances to go ahead, including a shot by Mendiburu that appeared to slip out of his hands before hitting the crossbar with 2:05 to play.

At the other end of the pool, the Rams appeared to have dodged a couple of bullets when Adam Fitt had a pair of shots hit off the post, but Aiden Botterill’s rebound shot in front of the net proved to be the game-winner with 1:00 to play.

Braun missed a shot from 8-meters out on Garces’ next possession, and then after forcing a few turnovers, Isaiah Chrisco’s desperation shot was deflected with 2 seconds to play. Clovis West retrieved the ball and held on as time expired.

The Rams, who had beaten the Golden Eagles (15-16) in a tournament earlier in the year, trailed 4-1 at the end of the first quarter and 7-4 at the half.

Garces picked up its intensity, particularly on defense, in the third quarter and pulled to within one goal when Christian Giumarra took a pass into the post from Chrisco and beat Clovis West goalie Connor Carr to make it 7-6 with 35 seconds left in the period.

Enloe was animated on the sidelines during a few occasions, and at one point ran the length of the pool to try to call a timeout.

“You definitely have to try to read what the team needs,” Enloe said. “So on Wednesday I was super calm, they needed a calm force. Today I felt like they needed something a little bit more. Obviously I want them to win so bad that you just give them the energy. I just love the boys, so I was animated.”

But the Golden Eagles responded with a quick goal to close out the quarter and added another on a penalty shot to take a 9-6 advantage with 6:47 left.

“I couldn’t have asked for anything more from the boys,” Enloe said. “We definitely grinded them the whole year. They gave us everything they could and often times we think in sports that it’s all about, ‘Did you win the trophy or not,’ and our big focus was just trying to help them grow into men.

“We came in, we spotted a few weaknesses that we felt we needed to work on, and I can say across the board every single kid improved.”