PREP WATER POLO ROUNDUP : El Toro Is Spoiler Again, Wins Title

The El Toro High School water polo team is at it again.

El Toro, the defending Southern Section 3-A division champion, defeated Capistrano Valley, 5-4, to win the Villa Park tournament Saturday.

It was an all-too familiar scene for top-ranked Capistrano Valley. When it looked as if Capistrano Valley would go undefeated last season, El Toro stopped the Cougars’ 19-match streak with a 12-8 triumph in the 3-A title match.

This season, Capistrano Valley (8-0) was picked as the top team in the Southern Section and Orange County coaches’ polls. And again it was El Toro, sixth-ranked in both polls, that knocked down Capistrano Valley.

At first, it seemed as if Capistrano Valley had control of the game. Dan Hancock scored twice and Kevin Eggert once to give the Cougars a 3-0 first-quarter lead.

“Falling behind early has been happening a lot lately--too much in fact,” said J.P. Mathot, two-meter man for El Toro. “We talked about it after the first quarter. We talked about neutralizing their two best players and playing good defense.”

Then they backed it up.

Mathot started the comeback by scoring three of his four goals in the second quarter to tie it, 3-3, at halftime.

Defensively, El Toro was fronting the two-meter position and pressing outside to stall Capistrano Valley’s offense and keep the ball from Eggert.

Dan Mathot, J.P.’s brother, swam free in front of the goal and scored a dead-time goal with one minute left in the third quarter to give El Toro a 4-3 lead.

El Toro went ahead, 5-3, with 5:23 left in the fourth quarter when J.P. Mathot was fouled from behind by Eggert while facing the goal. Mathot converted his second penalty shot. The lead seemed insurmountable because El Toro had shut down Capistrano Valley’s offense.

Eggert scored with 16 seconds left to make it, 5-4, but El Toro ran out the clock.

In other Villa Park tournament matches:

Villa Park 8, Coronado 7--Kip Parsons scored four goals to lead Villa Park to victory in the third-place game.

Edison 15, Costa Mesa 11--Brian Melstrom scored four goals to lead Edison (7-3) to the consolation championship at Foothill High School.