Wolverines Get Lesson from ‘Best’

If Harvard-Westlake High’s nonleague water polo game against Long Beach Wilson on Saturday was supposed to be an indicator of the Wolverines’ chances in the Southern Section Division I playoffs, consider the prognosis bad.

The top-ranked Bruins--using speed, offensive balance and a dominant third quarter--won in rout, 15-7, at Harvard-Westlake.

Wilson got goals from six players, four of whom scored at least three goals. Eleven of the Bruins’ goals came on counter attacks or fast breaks off of steals.

Wolverine Coach Rich Corso, whose team is ranked fourth in Division I, came away impressed with Wilson.

“They’re the best team in the country,” Corso said. “I didn’t anticipate a score like this, but it can happen with them. They’re loaded.”

The Bruins (20-0) feature three returning All-Americans from their Division I championship team of last season. They have yet to be tested this season, having won all of their games by six or more goals.

“We have good team diversity and it showed today,” said Wilson Coach Ricardo Azevedo, who was an assistant to Corso on the 1996 U.S. Olympic team. “We have a lot of guys we can go to. There isn’t any one player you can say, ‘If we shut him down, we can win.’ ”

Harvard-Westlake (16-2) played competitively in the first half and was within 6-3 at halftime. But Wilson created 10 turnovers and held Harvard-Westlake to two shots in the third quarter.

The Bruins turned five of those turnovers into goals and scored another when Jeff Nesmith picked up a loose ball and outswam the Wolverine defense for the length of the pool before firing a shot past goalie Brendan Connolly. Wilson had a 12-3 lead after three quarters.

“In the first half, [Harvard-Westlake] played us as well as anyone we’ve seen so far,” Azevedo said. “But I think they used a lot of gas to get to 6-3 and in the third quarter they were pretty tired.”

Harvard-Westlake fell behind, 3-0, two minutes into the game. But Peter Hudnut, who had four goals, got the Wolverines on the board with a backhanded goal from the two-meter position.

Billy Strickland scored from the left side to pull the Wolverines to within 3-2 with 45 seconds left in the first quarter.

Harvard-Westlake, which had 22 turnovers, fell victim to the swarming defense of the Bruins, who harassed Hudnut with two or three defenders seemingly every time he touched the ball.

“I think what this shows is that we need to be very, very sure we have a balanced attack,” Corso said. “Today we played only for the two-meter, but we need to have the two-meter, the drivers and the perimeter attack.”