Boys’ Water Polo: Edison stops Barons in OT
Several factors seemed to be working against the Edison High boys’ water polo team this season.
The Chargers finished winless in the Sunset League a year ago, had very limited varsity experience and had a new head coach.
With two thrilling overtime victories in consecutive weeks, however, Edison has punched its ticket to the CIF Southern Section Division 3 playoffs.
The Chargers outlasted rival Fountain Valley in overtime, 8-7, on Wednesday night at Newport Harbor High, clinching third place in league and the automatic CIF berth that comes with it.
“It feels awesome,” Edison Coach Sean Little said. “Honestly, I told all the boys that at the beginning of the year, I don’t think there was a single person outside of the group of guys that we have, their parents and us that thought that was possible. Every day they showed up, they worked their butt off and had a positive attitude, and it really showed in the pool tonight.”
Sophomore Cameron Davidson scored a game-high three goals for the Chargers (10-11, 3-1 in league) on Wednesday night. Senior Austin Cozza, the only Edison returner with significant varsity experience from a year ago, added two goals.
Kyle Atkinson, Carter Walton and Nick Wong added single goals for the Chargers, who also got 14 big saves from junior goalie Conor Halloran.
Edison also earned an overtime league win over Marina, 20-15, last week. And the team also had to shake off a loss to Fountain Valley last Saturday, in the third-place game of the Ocean View tournament which was won by the Barons, 8-3.
“For a bunch of guys who have never been asked to play at this level, never been asked to step up, they definitely did that,” Little said.
Fountain Valley (13-15, 0-4) rallied from a 6-3 deficit after three quarters. Kyle Fusco and Adam Mancini scored goals before Dylan Lebaron had the equalizer, from six meters with 59 seconds left in regulation.
But Edison’s Wong, who also had four steals, scored a power-play goal with 12 seconds left in the first three-minute overtime period to give the Chargers back the advantage. Little said the team had been working on the play in practice earlier this week.
“[Wong] is quicker than anyone I’ve ever seen, so he’s not very big but he’s relentless and he works hard on offense,” Little said. “I was super, super happy that he was the one who got that goal.”
Cozza scored with 1:36 remaining in the second overtime period to give the Chargers a two-goal advantage. Fountain Valley’s Kyle Graham scored with 30 seconds left, but Edison was able to hang on.
Fountain Valley junior goalie Jake Huynen also led the Barons with several big stops, 12 overall on the night.
Edison closes out league next week with league champion Huntington Beach, which made Wednesday night’s win all the more critical.
“It means a lot to us, because we went 0 for 5 in league last year,” said Halloran, the goalie. “We wanted to redeem ourselves ... I’m pretty sure everybody except for our actual team thought we would fail, which is another reason why this is so big for us.”
