Water Polo Playoffs : Blum Leads Top-Seeded Sunny Hills Over Millikan

Erik Blum scored four goals Thursday to help the Sunny Hills High School water polo team, seeded first in the Southern Section 4-A playoffs, open the tournament with a 13-5 victory over Millikan in a match played in the Lancers’ pool at Fullerton.

While the rest of the 4-A matches will be held today, Sunny Hills and Millikan played Thursday at Millikan’s request. The Lancers, who won their 16th straight Freeway League championship last week, remain undefeated (27-0) and will meet the winner of today’s Villa Park-University match in the second round.

In 3-A playoff action:

El Dorado 25, San Bernardino 3--Brothers Craig and Mike Tillman, who shared most valuable player honors in the Empire League, combined for 10 goals to lead the second-seeded Golden Hawks to an easy first-round victory at El Dorado.

El Toro 15, Esperanza 7--Keith Shore scored five goals to lead the top-seeded Chargers into the second round against Buena. John Dennis and Trey Adkins each added three goals for El Toro, while Golen Diaz and Mike Slavich each scored three goals for the Aztecs.

San Clemente 7, San Gorgonio 4--Troy Simington led the third-seeded Tritons with four goals and Greg Cohen had eight saves against the Spartans. San Clemente led, 4-2, at the half, but a three-goal third period gave the Tritons a 7-2 advantage. Greg Morris added two goals for San Clemente.

St. John Bosco 9, Los Alamitos 5--Ross Hove and Alec Cox each scored four goals and Tim Miller had 13 saves, as the Braves jumped out to a 6-0 halftime lead. St. John Bosco (18-6) increased its lead to 7-0 in the third period before Los Alamitos scored.

Hacienda Heights Wilson 13, Irvine 8--The fourth-seeded Wildcats defeated the Vaqueros at Hacienda Heights to advance to the second round, where they will meet Arcadia, an 11-10 winner over Downey Thursday.