Corona del Mar boys’ water polo breaks through to Open Division semifinals
The Corona del Mar High boys’ water polo team had been building toward this moment.
Under the lights on Thursday night, the Sea Kings made the most of it in a hard-fought battle.
Senior center Camron Simoncelli scored the eventual game-winning backhand goal in the first overtime period, lifting CdM to a 9-8 upset win at No. 4 Oaks Christian in the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Open Division playoffs.
A second victory in three tries against Oaks Christian this season lifted the Sea Kings to the Open Division semifinals, where they’ll play at undefeated top seed JSerra on Wednesday at 5 p.m.
“I’ve been to the semifinals for Division 1, but it’s our first time in Open [Division],” said Simoncelli, a UCLA commit. “I’m excited to play in that, it should be really fun. I knew it was going to happen eventually. I’ve been doing this with the same guys since I was so young. We kind of knew after a while we’d pull together and do good together.”
Making the final four in the top division was indeed an accomplishment for the Wave League champion Sea Kings (23-6), who got two goals from senior left-hander and Pepperdine commit Charles Warmington against Marmonte League champion Oaks Christian (21-7).
Playing in front of a sizable crowd on a packed pool deck, the Sea Kings led nearly the whole way. But it never felt comfortable. CdM took a 5-2 halftime advantage after a buzzer-beater from junior Jackson Harlan, yet had to battle as the hosts rallied in the second half.
Junior Saul Biddle scored four goals to lead the Lions.
“We knew that they were going to be ready for us,” CdM coach Kareem Captan said. “Their game plan was going to be solid, they were going to be very disciplined. We knew that we had an uphill battle. Every time things started going the other direction for us, we regrouped.”
Two starters fouled out of the Sea Kings, but they got strong play off the bench from players like Vitaly Laptev, Aiden Anavim, Noah Gerard and Landon Castillo. Laptev and Castillo also scored for CdM, while Luke Zimmerman dished out three assists.
Senior goalkeeper Chase Campbell also played big for the Sea Kings with 11 saves, including a penalty-shot stuff in overtime that preserved the tie at the time. He also blocked a couple of close-range attempts from Oaks Christian center Max Burstein.
Captan said it was a bit of a full-circle moment for his core senior group, which had lost 9-7 at Oaks Christian in the quarterfinals of the Division 1 playoffs as sophomores.
This time, they flipped the script.
“This group has earned that — to be resilient — over the past three years,” Captan said. “I feel like we come through on that win only because of all the times we came up short over the last couple of years. We lost the [Division 1] semifinal game last year by one off a six-on-five play. That was heartbreaking for us, and [Orange Lutheran] went on to win it. But that prepared us for today.”
JSerra offers a different challenge. The Lions (25-0) beat the Sea Kings 14-10 in the teams’ only previous meeting, in the semifinals of the South Coast Tournament on Sept. 16.
CdM will be attempting to make its first CIF final since 2017.
“I’m not counting us out,” Captan said. “JSerra is nothing short of an extremely talented team, but we’re up for it, and we’re going to give them our best, period. That’s just what we do.”
Newport Harbor 15, Santa Margarita 8: Connor Ohl scored five goals for the No. 2-seeded Sailors in the Open Division quarterfinals Thursday at Newport Harbor High.
Fellow sophomore Kai Kaneko added three goals for Newport Harbor (25-3), which will host No. 3 Studio City Harvard-Westlake in the semifinals on Wednesday at 5 p.m.
Newport Harbor, the two-time defending Open Division champion, is 4-0 against Harvard-Westlake this season.
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.
