Stanford Wins National Title in Water Polo : Kemp Helps Blunt Malibu’s Comeback With Key Saves in 9-8 Victory

Malibu goalie Craig Wilson gave his hamburger a glance and asked a young vendor if the meal was likely to digest in the three hours before his second water polo game Sunday.

Wilson was assured that it would. What Wilson, a two-time Olympian and silver-medal winner, had a harder time digesting was Stanford’s shooting.

Fifth-seeded Stanford defeated Malibu, 9-8, in the title game of the U.S. Senior Men’s National Water Polo championship at UC San Diego’s Canyon View Pool.

“The only way to win a game is to beat the goalie and that’s exactly what they did,” Wilson said. “They beat the goalie. They deserved to win.”

Stanford and seventh-seeded Malibu took 4-0 records into the afternoon game and looked evenly matched after playing to a 2-2 tie after one quarter.

But the second quarter proved to be Malibu’s undoing. Each team scored within the first minute of play until Stanford reeled off four goals in less than three minutes to take a 7-3 lead with 2 1/2 minutes left before the half. Two quick Malibu goals narrowed the deficit to 7-5.

“We scored too many goals against Wilson,” Stanford Coach Dante Dettamanti said. “Nine against him? That’s unheard of. We had some great outside shots and we were just lucky enough to score more goals.”

And lucky enough to stifle Malibu’s attempted fourth-quarter comeback, when Stanford goalie and tournament most valuable player Todd Kemp deflected four consecutive shots.

“All tournament long, he saved us a lot,” Dettamanti said.

A fifth-year senior and three-time All-American at Stanford, Kemp is one of four goalies--along with Wilson--on the national team.

Kemp had 10 saves to Wilson’s 13 in the final and two impressive steals from within the scoring cage. Yet Kemp spoke of Wilson being the man to stop.

“Dante talked about having to challenge him,” Kemp said. “We tend to shoot better against better goalies. It works the opposite way than it should. But I don’t know if (teams) play any different because of me.”

All along, it was Stanford’s intention to badger Wilson and wear him down.

“We went after Wilson,” Dettamanti said. “We scored some really nice goals against him. I like the way they challenged him.”

Stanford knew that any scoring would have to be from the perimeter.

“We knew we had to shoot outside,” said Kemp. “It’s impossible to score on (Wilson) one-on-one.”

Said Wilson: “We knew the only way they could score against us with our defense would be from the outside. They had a couple of wide passes I thought went past the cage and they went through the cage.”

Six players scored for Stanford--Jeff Oeding had three and Craig Klass had two goals.

“We used every player,” Dettamanti said. “That helped us counter attack. It kept them fresh.”

Stanford’s final challenge sealed the game. Leading 8-7 with one minute remaining, Rick McNair scored within the two-meter mark from the left side, making Terry Schroeder’s goal with 34 seconds left meaningless.

“Our defense really helped us a lot,” Kemp said. “Everyone was where they should be at the right time.”

Stanford did not compete in the tournament last year, but won in 1986 and 1987.