Bishop's senior Justin Wolfe might have hoped to score the goal that would enable the Knights to regain the championship from Coronado in the San Diego Section Division II water polo final.

But Wolfe probably never imagined scoring the game's winning, and final, goal in the third quarter.

After Wolfe converted with four seconds left in the third period, the top-seeded Knights held firm in a scoreless fourth quarter to prevail 4-3 for their sixth title in seven years last night at La Jolla High's Coggan Pool.

“It's good that we came together and played really well,” said Wolfe, a three-year varsity member. “In the fourth quarter, we just knew that we needed to keep pressure on them defensively.”

The Knights (24-7) topped second-seeded Coronado (24-7) despite 16 saves by Islanders goalie Justin Parsons, who played despite battling illness for two days.

Bishop's sophomore reserve Matt Michalko, who scored with 3:51 left in the third quarter for a 3-3 tie, stole the ball in the defensive end with 33 seconds left in the game to help close the 11th title match between the schools in 12 years.

“This feels good,” Michalko said. “I wasn't as big a part of the team as I wanted to be all year. I worked hard through the season, and it felt great to play in this big game.”

Knights senior goalie Christian Ronald, a first-year starter, stopped a penalty shot by Rex Butler in the second quarter and ultimately made the last of his seven saves as time expired on a shot by Tommy Schofer.

Coronado junior Alex Johnson recorded his second goal of the game to account for the Islanders' only lead, 3-2 with 5:31 left in the third quarter.

“All of us felt it would be a close, hard-fought game,” Coronado coach Randy Burgess said. “Obviously, Bishop's came to play, and we did, too.”

The schools split two regular-season meetings, also decided by one goal each.

Demian Tschirn and Drew Hoffenberg each had first-quarter goals for Bishop's, which went scoreless in the second period.