Thousand Oaks Rises to the Top, Upends Royal, 11-7

The Royal High water polo team seemed to have all the advantages.

The Highlanders were in their home pool, were backed by an enthusiastic home crowd and Coach Steve Snyder was wearing his victory hat, a Panama. Even the cheerleading squad showed up.

And the Highlanders, winners of five consecutive Marmonte League titles, were off to a 3-0 record in league play. Royal appeared to have several points on Thousand Oaks before its match Wednesday at Rancho Simi Community Park.

But as Thousand Oaks Coach Juan Bowen pointed out, it’s only the points in the pool that count.

With that thought in mind, Bowen’s Lancers jumped to a quick 4-1 lead, and junior goalie Paul Snyder limited the Highlander offense to just one goal in the third period as Thousand Oaks defeated Royal, 11-7.

It was only the second league loss for Royal since 1983. The upset win gave the Lancers a 4-0 mark in league and a shot at ending the Royal reign.

“This is a very, very big win for our program,” Bowen said. “Now we are finally in the driver’s seat.”

The Lancers drove Royal captain Greg Frazier nearly crazy, keeping the senior as far away from the goal as possible through a series of defensive substitutions designed to wear him down. Frazier scored twice in the first half as Thousand Oaks took a 6-3 lead, then faded as defenders Robb Clay and Lance Smith held him scoreless after halftime.

“Frazier is their top man,” Bowen said. “He is big, strong and physical. The only way we were going to have any success was to keep a fresh player on him.”

The Lancer defense kept the Highlanders out of the goal area for most of the game, including several instances in the second half where Thousand Oaks was shorthanded after player-ejection fouls.

“We tried to keep them out of the hole area,” Bowen said. “Snyder made some great saves in the third period.”

Snyder had some big trunks to fill. Last year’s Lancer goalie was Wes Stuper, an all-league selection. And the remainder of the Thousand Oaks’ starting lineup contains just two seniors.

“We’re a team with fast kids that relies on speed,” Bowen said. “We take chances on fast breaks, and we have to concentrate on getting back on defense. In a game against a team like this, we have to gamble and try to create things.”

All Thousand Oaks had to lose was the stigma of five years as also-swams.

Smith, a junior, led the offense with four goals, and Clay added three. Kevin Shiotani and Rob Ashmore each scored twice.

Brian Hermanson scored two goals for Royal.

The victory gives Thousand Oaks (14-3) a one-game lead over Royal (10-7) at the season’s halfway mark.

But years of placing second has taught Bowen to take even the big victories lightly.

“I’m optimistic about our chances, but we still have to play the rest of the league one more time. We’ve got Royal again in two weeks,” he said.

“That game is in the last week of the season. But it’s in our pool, where we usually play them pretty tough.”

Maybe Bowen believes in advantages after all.