Third Just Fine for Wolverines

Harvard-Westlake High water polo Coach Rich Corso would normally be dissatisfied with a third-place finish in a tournament, but when the Wolverines placed third at the Southern California Invitational on Saturday, he was all smiles.

The Wolverines lost their semifinal game against Santa Ana Foothill, 11-5, but rebounded with a 10-7 victory over Los Alamitos to finish 3-1 in a tournament that featured champions from four CIF sections.

“This is exactly where I want to be,” Corso said. “To finish third in a tournament like this, I’m real proud of the guys.”

Harvard-Westlake arrived at Heritage Park Aquatic Center only 20 minutes before the start of its semifinal game because of traffic. After watching the Wolverines’ performance in the loss, Corso wondered if his team did show up.

Foothill, the top-ranked team in the state and defending Southern Section Division I champion, took advantage of six Wolverine turnovers in the third quarter and used an aggressive counter attack to extend a 6-4 halftime lead to 10-4.

The Wolverines (8-2) had chances to get back in the game, but failed to capitalize on several fourth-quarter opportunities.

“That third quarter killed us,” Corso said. “We had too many offensive fouls and weren’t aggressive on the perimeter. [Foothill is] the type of team that will expose those mistakes.”

Phillip Spataru scored three goals for Harvard-Westlake.

Corso substituted freely against Los Alamitios, and the result was a more aggressive Wolverine offense.

David Stone scored two of his three goals in the third quarter to help the Wolverines turn a 4-4 halftime tie into a 8-5 lead.

Los Alamitos (11-5) pulled within 8-7 with 2 minutes 49 seconds remaining, but Stone and Spataru scored on the Wolverines’ next two possessions and goalie Brendan Connolly made three saves in the final minute.

“I don’t know what Brendan ate between games,” Corso said. “But we’re going to feed it to him all the time.”

Connolly had 15 saves in the victory.

Long Beach Wilson beat Foothill, 9-8, in the final.