Southern Section Water Polo Playoffs : San Clemente Achieves Its Goal and Defeats Edison

The San Clemente High School water polo team had a goal Wednesday, even before its Southern Section 3-A water polo playoff match began.

Stop Brent Warde.

By keeping an eye on Warde, Edison’s scoring machine, third-seeded San Clemente was able to hold on for an 11-9 victory at Saddleback College and advance to the semifinals. The Tritons, seeded third, will play second-seeded Capistrano Valley on Saturday.

“The whole key to the match was stopping Warde,” San Clemente Coach Steve Yancey said. “He’s a great player and it’s amazing that we were able to shut him down.”

Actually, the Tritons shut Warde out. It was the first time he had been held scoreless all season.

Sam Allevato hawked Warde all over the pool, denying him the ball much of the time.

Warde, whose first shot didn’t come until early in the second period, managed only five for the game.

San Clemente, which forced Edison into 7 first-quarter turnovers, took a 3-0 lead on goals by Ian Condon, Dan Flynn and Kevin Perkins.

Edison (17-11) began playing more aggressively in the second period. Goals by Beau McCraney and another by Clint Nichols tied the score, 3-3.

San Clemente (14-11) went up 7-5 at the end of the third quarter, as Kevin Perkins scored 2 of his 5 goals. Edison again tied the score, this time on goals by McCraney and Brian Stanton.

San Clemente goalie Paul Linnenkback made 3 saves in the final 3 minutes of the fourth period.

Allevato scored with with 3 minutes 21 seconds left to give the Tritons a 9-8 lead and then took a pass from Perkins and beat goalie Todd Roby to the left for a 10-8 lead.

With 4 seconds left, McCraney and Mike Ankrom were ejected for fighting. Each team was awarded a 4-meter penalty shot.

Chad McCain scored for Edison to cut the deficit to 10-9, but Allevato followed with his third goal of the quarter to clinch the victory.

In other 3-A quarterfinal matches:

Capistrano Valley 12, Costa Mesa 7--The second-seeded Cougars took a 5-0 lead at Saddleback College. Trevor Cox scored 6 goals, 4 in the first half as Capistrano Valley (18-4-1) built a 7-1 lead. Paul Felton scored 4 goals. Goalie Chris Bowman made 7 saves, 5 in the first quarter. Costa Mesa finished 21-11.

Riverside Poly 8, Marina 7 (sudden-death overtime)--Keith Baker scored the game winner a minute into the sudden-death overtime period, as Riverside Poly (15-12) upset fourth-seeded Marina at Bobby Bonds Park in Riverside. Marina’s Jeff Kagy tied the score with 13 seconds left to send the match into overtime, and the Vikings (16-13) grabbed the lead 16 seconds into the period on a goal by Jason Cox. The Bears tied the match again on a goal by Baker with 50 seconds left, forcing a sudden-death period.

El Toro 13, San Bernardino 10--Bill Coffman and Matt Teeple scored 3 goals each for visiting El Toro (19-1), the top-seeded team in the division. The score was tied at the half, 4-4, but El Toro outscored San Bernardino (22-4), 4-3, in the third quarter and, 5-3, in the fourth. El Toro plays Riverside Poly in one semifinal Saturday at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.