Harvard Reaching Higher Planes : Saracens Gain Water Polo Semifinals With 7-4 Win Over Ventura

Rich Corso is a difficult man to please. But even the Harvard High water polo coach was happy after his team’s 7-4 victory against Ventura on Tuesday in the quarterfinals of the Southern Section 2-A Division playoffs at Harvard.

Perhaps not as ecstatic as after earlier playoff victories over San Dimas, 37-1, and Bell Gardens, 11-5. But pleased nonetheless.

“After our second game, I ran into a college coach who’s a friend of mine and he asked how come we only scored 11 goals,” Corso said. “But anytime you can win a water polo match by as many as we did, you have to be happy.”

Harvard, which has been the top-ranked team in the 2-A all season, led, 7-2, until Ventura (19-8) scored on a penalty shot with 2:27 to play. Ventura scored again with 58 seconds left.

“We’ve been building up each game,” said Harvard senior Justin Cheen, who scored a game-high 3 goals. “The first game, the second game then the third game . . . we keep on getting better. Hopefully, we’ll peak for the finals.”

In the Saracens’ 3 playoff matches, Cheen has scored 16 goals. Teammate Damon Willick, also a senior, had 1 goal to increase his playoff total to 14. Harvard (25-3) has outscored playoff opponents, 55-10.

Ventura took its only lead, 2-1, on a goal by senior Jim Norton with 15 seconds remaining in the first period. The lead was short-lived, however, as Cheen scored his first goal 9 seconds later. Harvard took a 4-2 lead at the end of the second period on a Brian Border goal after a pass from Willick.

“There are a lot of game situations where you can score with a couple seconds left,” Corso said. “Six seconds is a long time. We tell our kids to play until the buzzer.”

Jed Simon and Tim Pennington also scored for Harvard.

“They executed their drop-back defense real well and we had a hard time adjusting to it,” Ventura Coach Dale Hahn said.

Harvard plays South Pasadena at 3:15 p.m. Saturday at a site to be determined.