Edison boys’ water polo beats Costa Mesa in CIF opener
Edison’s depth, experience and attacking aggressiveness was more than Costa Mesa could handle in Tuesday’s CIF Southern Section Division 2 boys’ water polo playoff opener, and the Chargers used two dominant runs to pull away to an emphatic victory.
Everett Rowden scored five goals, Tommy Kelly put three away and Colin Ryder led a superb defensive effort as senior-heavy Edison cruised to a 13-7 triumph in the Mustangs’ pool.
Edison (16-10), which finished the season ranked No. 8 in the Division 2 poll, advances to play at El Dorado (24-5) in the second round on Thursday. The Golden Hawks defeated El Segundo 16-12 in their first-round game.
The Chargers denied Costa Mesa (12-12) early penetration and used a pair of three-goal sprees to put the home side away.
“It’s Costa Mesa’s last home game of the season,” Edison coach Nick Graffis said. “You know they’re going to come out and play really hard. They’re going to give it 110 [percent], so we just had to match that intensity, and I think we did. ... The biggest thing is that we kept our calm. No hero-ball. We didn’t get too amped up, too, when they started to come back. Just a good, all-around team effort.”
The Mustangs, starting four freshmen and two sophomores, wilted early under defensive pressure, then strained to keep up when Edison countered. All three of their first-half goals came on 6-on-5 advantages, and they didn’t find their best gear until the fourth quarter, the result already determined.
“It wasn’t our best performance, but it wasn’t our worst ...,” said Costa Mesa co-coach Dustin Serrano, whose team dropped a 14-5 decision to the Chargers in Newport Harbor’s tournament in September. “We were just inches away from getting that one extra goal we needed to get our confidence and momentum swing. It was disappointing, but we see the future is very bright with this team.”
Edison went ahead about a minute and a half in through Dennis Marcin. Wes Brazda pulled the Mustangs even on a power play four minutes later. Then the Chargers pulled away to a 4-1 advantage, with Ryder scoring from distance off the crossbar late in the first period, then Joshua Winn and Rowden taking advantage of Costa Mesa goalkeeper Omar Babovic’s inexperience to start the second.
Two penalty shots, the second by Kelly with five seconds to go in the half, provided a 6-3 advantage at the break, and two quick power-play goals by Kelly to start the second half made it a five-goal difference. The Orange Coast League champions got no closer than a four-goal margin the rest of the way.
“We came in really hyped up,” Rowden said. “We knew how they were going to play, and we knew what we needed to do, and we went out and did it. ... We’re a team that’s, like, steal and counter. We have four or five high-tier varsity swimmers, and we all like to steal, play super-good defense, press out, make them tired and just swim.”
Edison has CIF aspirations.
“These guys basically had a year and a half of something weird going on, and they thought last year was going to be a big year for them,” Graffis said. “Our goal from the beginning of the year was win league. We didn’t do that — Los Alamitos is a good team — but our second goal is to win CIF. That’s what we’re here for, right? We’re not going to stop until someone forces us to.”
Freshman Dylan Rothenberg led Costa Mesa with three goals, and Brazda scored twice.
Winn netted two and goalkeeper Bob Johnson made 10 saves, two at point-blank range, for the Chargers.
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