Harvard-Westlake Measures Up in 14-10 Victory : Water polo: Doubted by Corso, Wolverines sink powerful Orinda Miramonte, 14-10.

Sometimes winning big isn’t good enough. Just ask Harvard-Westlake water polo Coach Rich Corso.

Since the Wolverines, ranked fifth in Division I of the Southern Section, lost to second-ranked Villa Park in the final of the Millikan tournament on September 16, they have won five consecutive games by an average margin of 17 points.

But Corso remained unsure of his team’s status after routs over five clearly weaker and unranked teams, so he decided to bring Orinda Miramonte, defending CIF North Coast Section champion, to the Zanuck Swimming Stadium on the campus of Harvard-Westlake for a Saturday morning match.

A 14-10 victory over the school that has produced three water polo Olympians since 1984 should enable Corso to rest easier.

“This was a great measuring stick for us,” Corso said. “It shows us that we are right in the thick of the CIF race.”

Corso’s teams are noted for their different defensive looks, changing formations an average of every three minutes. But the Wolverines (10-1) threw a new defense into the mix, the movement zone, which enabled them to keep Miramonte (13-2) off balance and hold the Matadors to 10 goals on 33 shots.

“There is no question that our defense won this game for us,” Corso said. “I’m very happy with the way Vahe played,” he added, referring to goalie Vahe Aharonian who had 13 saves, including two big stops in a Matador flurry late in the fourth quarter.

J.J. Arden and Rick Rauth each scored four goals for Harvard and Albert Won added three goals, including a bullet from 10 feet away that broke a 3-3 tie with 5:08 left in the second quarter that gave the Wolverines a lead they didn’t relinquish.

Harvard took a 7-4 lead at halftime, then came out gunning in the third quarter. The Wolverines started the second half with a 4-1 run, highlighted by Won’s third goal. It came on an acrobatic move in which he went below the surface of the water, came up under the ball 10 feet in front of the goal and gunned his shot into the upper right corner for a 10-5 Harvard lead.

The Wolverine defense took over from there, cutting off the Matador shooting lanes and forcing bad shots in holding Miramonte to a two-for-eight third-quarter shooting performance.

The Wolverines took advantage of Miramonte ejection fouls, scoring four of six times when they had a man advantage. The Matadors, who got five goals from Sean Joy, couldn’t capitalize on Wolverine mistakes as they scored just two goals in six attempts with a man advantage.

James Lathrop missed a penalty shot during a late Matador run that would have trimmed the Wolverine lead to 12-9 with two minutes left in the match.

Instead, the Wolverines scored twice in the final minute, on a penalty shot by Rauth and an alley-oop pass from Chris Cha to Steven Brende at the buzzer.