Royal Invests Quarters Wisely in 20-3 Rout : High school water polo: Highlanders attack Crespi six minutes at a time and advance to second round of Southern Section 3-A Division playoffs.

As members of the Royal High water polo team prepared for this week’s Southern Section 3-A Division playoffs, one thought was drilled into their heads.

Quarter by quarter.

Instead of the traditional plea for his team to take the playoffs “one game at a time,” Royal Coach Steve Snyder implored his troops to take their matches six minutes at a time.

Wednesday afternoon at Rancho Simi pool in Simi Valley, Royal bonked Crespi with the water polo equivalent of a sock full of quarters, posting a 20-3 rout to advance to the second round of the playoffs for the ninth time in Snyder’s 11 years at Royal.

After a sluggish first quarter in which Royal (22-3) managed just a 3-2 lead, the Highlanders took the second quarter rather seriously. Using an overwhelming defense, Royal outscored the Celts, 9-0, and cruised home from there.

It was a team effort for Royal. Junior Jack Kocur scored a match-high seven goals, senior Mike Radka had six and senior Ryan Duncan added five goals to go with five steals.

Snyder was particularly pleased with the play of Duncan, who scored most of his goals on lobs over Crespi goalie Bryan Berman.

“He had a banner day,” Snyder said. “Ryan is smart enough to know that he doesn’t have the strongest arm in the world, so he makes up for it in other ways.”

Outmanned Crespi (11-14) simply couldn’t keep up with Royal’s defense. Other than their two first-quarter goals, the Celts managed just two shots on goal in the first half and rarely had time to set up on offense before Royal had forced a turnover.

Crespi’s third goal came in the fourth quarter, long after the outcome of the match had been decided.

“After the first quarter, I thought we could hang with them,” Crespi Coach Jeff Thornton said. “But they were just too fast and too experienced. I think they have a very good team.”

Three sophomores and two juniors started for Crespi, which bodes well for the future.

“We just have to have a real strong summer program like Royal,” Thornton said. “We’ll be back.”

Added Snyder: “Crespi is such a young team. Watch out for them in three years.”

But the future is now for Snyder. In Friday’s second-round match against Santa Monica, Royal faces what Snyder laughingly calls “the jinx or whatever.” In Snyder’s tenure at Royal, the Highlanders have yet to advance past the second round in the playoffs.

“What’s funny is that most of these kids were 7 and 8 years old when this jinx started,” he said. “But we’ll have a healthy, constructive talk about it (Thursday).”

A talk in which Snyder is likely to remind the team that a few more quarters, like Wednesday’s second, wouldn’t hurt a bit.