Harvard Falls in Water Polo Semifinal, 13-3
Harvard High’s hopes for a third consecutive trip to the Southern Section water polo final came to a quick end Saturday.
Top-seeded El Toro scored on its first three shots en route to a decisive 13-3 win over the fourth-seeded Saracens in a 3-A Division semifinal game at Santa Monica High. The win puts the defending 3-A champions into Wednesday’s title game against Capistrano Valley, a 7-6 winner over Marina in the other semifinal.
“We just didn’t play well at all,” Harvard Coach Rich Corso said. “This was an old-fashioned butt kicking. We were tentative the first 14 minutes.”
El Toro Coach Don Stoll instructed his team to put early pressure on Harvard All-American goalie Larry Bercutt.
While El Toro was shooting bullets at Bercutt, the Saracens weren’t even firing blanks at Charger goalie Eric Terwilliger.
“We didn’t even take a shot until the end of the second quarter,” Corso said. “We just weren’t aggressive enough.”
El Toro (25-5) built a 6-0 lead before Hasan Yardimci got Harvard (27-5) on the scoreboard 55 seconds before halftime. But any thoughts of a comeback were dashed in the third quarter as the Chargers scored four unanswered goals.
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