Royal Splash Becomes Tsunami

Yikes! Point taken.

Feeling overlooked and underrated, the Royal High boys’ water polo team wanted to send a message to local media and anyone else who cared.

Crescenta Valley just happened to get caught in the cross-fire.

Royal trounced Crescenta Valley, 13-5, in a nonleague game Thursday at Rancho Simi Park.

“We kind of felt like we haven’t been getting a whole lot of respect,” Coach Steve Snyder of Royal said. “This team can beat anybody on any given day and we proved it [Thursday].”

Royal (17-5), ranked No. 3 in Division IV but unranked in The Times’ Top 5, scored the first four goals and nine of the first 10 against a team that allows an average of five goals a game.

“Not a stellar performance by us by any means,” said Coach Pete Loporchio of Crescenta Valley (19-2).

Royal used a strong counter-attack and frequently left Crescenta Valley defenders in a wake. Eight of the Highlanders’ goals came on transitions. All were started by goalie Tom Onyshko, who had six assists.

“We wanted to come out and earn everybody’s respect, show what we could do,” said Onyshko, who had 21 saves. “And this is the best game [we’ve played] to this point.”

Three of Derek Anderson’s seven goals were scored on counter-attacks from short range with only goalie Mike Hoy in front of him.

Crescenta Valley ranked No. 2 by The Times, trailed, 4-0, after the first quarter and, 8-1, at halftime.

“We just weren’t mentally prepared to play this kind of game,” Loporchio said. “We don’t get the opportunity to see the counter-attack very often [because of our small pool size] and they did it very well.”

Royal limited Carlos Pelayo, the Falcons’ leading scorer, to one goal in 14 shots.