Boys’ Water Polo: Oilers roll into semifinals

SANTA ANA — To be the champion you have to beat the champion, and the Huntington Beach High boys’ water polo team got past defending CIF Southern Section Division 1 champion Mater Dei on Saturday afternoon.

But it was the way the Oilers did it that really sent a message to the rest of the teams left in the draw.

No. 3-seeded Huntington Beach shut the Monarchs down at their own pool on its way to an 11-5 victory in the Division 1 quarterfinal match. The Oilers, making their third straight semifinal appearance but searching for their first CIF title match appearance in program history, will play No. 2 Harvard-Westlake in the semifinals Wednesday night.

Harvard-Westlake defeated Foothill, 7-3, in another quarterfinal match.

Huntington Beach (23-3) frustrated Mater Dei (22-8) all game long with a spectacular effort in five-man defense. Mater Dei converted just one of 13 power-play opportunities.

“We’ve been watching film, we’ve been preparing for them for so long,” said Oilers senior goalie Patrick Saunders, who tied a season-high with 14 saves. “We knew exactly what they were going to do on six-on-five. We were ready ... It really means a lot [to beat Mater Dei]. They’ve been our rivals the past few years, and it feels good to finally get past them in CIF.”

Included in Mater Dei’s power play frustration was a six-on-four chance, earned on the counterattack after Saunders and a field player were both excluded. But Huntington Beach junior Jacob Cavano, who led the team with four goals, had an answer. He registered the save in the net, keeping the Oilers in front, 9-2 at the time, in the third quarter.

It was an effort that gave Huntington Beach Coach Sasa Branisavljevic, who played set guard growing up, a reason to smile.

“I was very happy and pleased with our performance on the defensive end, especially,” Branisavljevic said. “We had ups and downs, obviously, but ultimately we made the shot blocks and we stopped them defensively. It comes down to my boys being warriors and stepping up to the occasion. I told them to expect anything and everything, and at one point we even had the goalie kicked out of the game. A six-on-four, without the goalie in the cage, and we made the block ... I’m very proud of the boys for stepping up.

“[It came down to] communication, cohesion and grit. The will to not get scored on, more than anything else.”

The Sunset League champion Oilers blitzed Mater Dei in the first half for an 8-1 advantage at the intermission, on their way to recording their second win of the season against Mater Dei. Huntington also beat the Monarchs Oct. 15, in the title match of the North vs. South Challenge.

Saunders certainly earned respect from Mater Dei Coach Chris Segesman after the match.

“Huntington Beach, you could tell they were a team that’s been to the semis two years in a row,” Segesman said. “They were totally focused on getting back in that position, having a chance to get to the final. Credit to them. We’ve got to learn from their mentality today.

“We weren’t very aggressive. We were passive on our six-on-five, our passes were off. At the end of the day, Huntington Beach did a really good job shot-blocking, and they have a great goalie to back them up. It’s really a credit to Huntington Beach. They took us out of our comfort zone and their goalie was on fire today.”

Oilers junior Curtis Jarvis scored three goals but may have to sit out Wednesday’s semifinal after he was “rolled” Saturday. Branisavljevic said the referee told him that Jarvis kissed the back of a Mater Dei player’s head after scoring a goal.

Oilers senior center Quinten Osborne scored twice and drew at least five exclusions for Huntington Beach, which went four for eight on the power play. Senior defender Ryan Hurst and senior Matthew Robert also scored for the Oilers, who opened up a 5-0 lead with 2:53 left in the first half on Cavano’s goal. Mater Dei finally got on the board when senior Kirby Slater scored from outside on his team’s next possession.

Newport Beach resident Jack Seybold had a goal and three steals for Mater Dei.

Huntington Beach will now prepare for its third meeting of the season with Harvard-Westlake, but the first since September. The Wolverines, who were top-ranked in Division 1 most of the season before losing to Loyola in their Mission League finale, beat Huntington Beach at the Elite Eight tournament and also in the South Coast Tournament title match.

“We have to play the best teams in the country right now,” Saunders said. “It’s a great opportunity, it’s a lot of fun. We know it’s going to be a tough game every game, and we have to step up to it. It makes us play better, it makes us practice harder. I love how we have this challenge.”

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In another Division 1 quarterfinal game earlier Saturday, Corona del Mar lost to No. 4-seeded Orange Lutheran, 15-10, at Santiago Canyon College.

The Sea Kings trailed, 5-4, after a back-and-forth first quarter. They fell behind, 8-4, late in the first half before junior Mitchell Cooper scored at the halftime buzzer.

CdM (21-8) tried to continue the rally in the third quarter. Senior TJ Morton scored a goal, then Cooper scored on a power-play chance earned by senior center Tamir Avital. That brought CdM within 8-7 with 5:12 remaining in the third quarter.

CdM again got within a goal on a side-armed strike by senior Will Rodosky. But Orange Lutheran (24-3), the Trinity League champion, responded with the final three goals of the third quarter. By the time Hannes Daube scored on the power play early in the fourth quarter, Orange Lutheran had a 13-8 advantage.

“We made a good run there in the third, we just missed a lot of open shots,” CdM Coach Barry O’Dea said. “A lot of our misses led to counterattacks the other way. That was disappointing, but it happens.”

Cooper and Avital led CdM with three goals each, while Rodosky scored twice. Henry Wilde added a goal and two assists for the Sea Kings, and Matt Moran-Flores made five saves.

Daube led Orange Lutheran with four goals, while Ash Molthen and Josh Orrick scored three each. O’Dea said he was happy with his team’s effort.

“I thought we had the team to go a little bit further [than the quarterfinals],” O’Dea said. “Obviously, [the players] are going to be disappointed. This has been a great year for me. I really enjoyed this season; it’s been one of the most enjoyable seasons I’ve had in a while. The kids have been awesome ... it’s been straight up get to work, get the job done. Obviously they’re going to walk away disappointed, but when they reflect back, I think they’ll think it was a great experience and they got a lot out of it.”