Mathot Picks Up Slack for El Toro : Water polo: Lone returning starter from Chargers’ championship team is on a record-setting scoring pace.

To a player, the El Toro High School water polo team likes to talk about winning games with defense and playing as a team.

That’s fine--no team can win the Southern Section title two consecutive years as El Toro has done without those ingredients.

But there’s no denying that the main point of the game is to score the most goals--and leading the Chargers’ charge this season is Jean Philip (J.P.) Mathot.

After losing 12 players to graduation and every starter except Mathot, El Toro (15-4) might have sneaked up on a few teams this season. But as victories and goals accumulate--Mathot has a team-high 70 goals--more opponents are keying on Mathot than are being surprised by him.

Still, Mathot is a reluctant scorer--at least in the context of the team philosophy.

“I really don’t like (being the scoring leader) because I think the scoring should be more balanced,” he said. “Last year, we had four guys with over 50 goals. This year, it’s not as balanced. I have about a third of our team’s goals (175).”

Mathot is, in fact, on pace to break the school record for goals in a season (96 by Ken Nichol last season).

But Mathot can hardly keep from scoring for several reasons.

He plays the two-meter position, often called the hole or the set--the focal point of any offense because of its close proximity to the goal. Mathot is particularly adept at avoiding the foul and turning his man for a point-blank shot.

He also guards one of the drivers on defense, allowing him an early release on a change of possession. Mathot, who swam the 100-yard freestyle in 46.9 seconds last season, has the speed and to make him one of the most dangerous counterattack players in the county.

And El Toro Coach Don Stoll wants him to shoot.

“J.P.’s our best outside shooter, our best hole shooter and our best six-on-five shooter,” Stoll said. “So even if they double-team him, (as a coach) you like to free him up.

“We have a team concept--our offense isn’t built around one player and J.P. isn’t even one of our team captains. He happens to be getting a lot of goals. He gets to shoot a lot of four-meters (penalty shots) even though other players will draw them. He can block out the distractions. You always want someone who has a little ice water in his veins in those situations.”

Mathot didn’t suddenly realize his talent. He’s been playing water polo with club teams since he was in the seventh grade--a two-year advantage on most players--and at 6 feet 1, 175 pounds, he is tall and solid enough to hold his own.

“He’s a finesse-type player with a big body,” Stoll said. “And he’s also blessed with experience.”

And that experience includes playing in last year’s Southern Section 3-A championship game, a 12-8 victory over South Coast League rival Capistrano Valley.

Before the season, it looked as if this might be the season of revenge for the Cougars.

On paper, Capistrano Valley had three of the top players in the county returning and El Toro had Mathot.

But in the water, Mathot has had lots of help from the defense. The Chargers, ranked No. 2 in the Orange County coaches’ poll, have won both their meetings with Capistrano Valley.

The teams’ first game was for the championship of the Villa Park tournament in September. El Toro’s defense shut down Capistrano Valley and the Chargers won, 5-4. Mathot had four goals and his brother Dan, a sophomore driver, took a pass from J.P. to score the fifth.

In the second meeting, a league contest, El Toro upset Capistrano Valley with a 9-6 victory at Saddleback College.

Or was it an upset?

With Mathot in tow, perhaps El Toro’s success is not so surprising after all.