Corona del Mar football seniors make a splash in water polo exhibition game

Nobody can usually say this about the Corona del Mar High football team, last year’s CIF Southern Section Division 4 finalist.

But on Wednesday morning, the players seemed overmatched even before the game began. They were about to dive in the pool and play water polo against the CdM girls team, and they were basically clueless.

“I feel like I’m gonna drown, dude,” one player said out loud after stepping out of the locker room.

Another CdM football incoming senior asked CdM girls’ polo alumna and assistant coach Cassidy Papa if the game was played with goggles.

“No, you don’t play with goggles,” Papa responded somewhat amusedly.

The CdM girls’ polo team won the fun exhibition game against the CdM football incoming seniors, 13-2. One quarter was skipped, and the game was played with a running clock.

The stats weren’t important. What was important was the sense of unity in CdM athletics that the game provided.

“It was a fun switch to play [against] people that we knew,” said CdM girls’ water polo incoming junior Ella Abbott, who scored the game’s first goal on a counterattack. “It was just less intense and more casual, a good break. It was a good team bonding thing.”

Talented CdM incoming freshman Grace Myers, who recently made the USA Water Polo Cadet National Team, followed Abbott’s goal. Kira Hoffman scored, then Carter Britt and Hoffman again. Ella Musselman’s goal gave CdM girls’ polo a 6-0 lead after the first quarter.

CdM boys’ water polo coach Kareem Captan and girls’ polo coach Justin Papa served as referees. At one point later in the first half, Captan awarded the CdM football boys a penalty shot for no particular reason, trying to get them on the scoreboard. But it was stuffed by goalie Abby Siegel.

As CdM football coach Dan O’Shea looked on, his seniors finally got on the scoreboard in the fourth quarter. Incoming senior quarterback and receiver Spencer Hook made a nice skip-shot, then Connor McGuire scored.

“It was probably from mid-field or mid-pool, I don’t know what it’s called,” Hook said of his goal. “I thought I had a good chance after I missed one earlier over the top. I just fired it, since we were getting killed, and I made it.

“[Water polo] is pretty hard. It’s tiring on both the arms and legs.”

TaeVeon Le, a highly recruited incoming senior receiver, would agree with that sentiment.

“It’s rough, it’s long, intense,” said Le, who became CdM football’s single-season record-holder for receptions (78), receiving yards (1,294) and receiving touchdowns (22) as a junior. “Definitely one of the harder workouts I’ve ever done, but it was fun. I definitely would like to do more stuff like this, in terms of getting our sports teams together. I think it’s pretty important. Maybe the girls can come out and play football with us.”

Maybe so. Wednesday’s game also provided a nice break for the CdM polo girls, who finished eighth in last weekend’s California State High School Championships. They were more competitive than the placing would indicate, losing to Orange Lutheran and Newport Harbor by a single goal and to Foothill in a shootout.

Justin Papa said that CdM is playing the club season without highly talented incoming senior Chloe Harbilas and incoming junior Sophie Wallace, who are playing for SET, along with incoming senior goalie Erin Tharp (SOCAL). Harbilas, Wallace and Tharp sat at the scorer’s table Wednesday, amusedly watching their Sea Kings teammates.

At this point in the club season, everyone is preparing for the USA Water Polo Junior Olympics, which are in Orange County this year. The 18-and-under girls play in Session Two, which begins July 27.

Playing against the football team was all about fun, though.

“The girls have been training super-hard, so it was really nice,” Justin Papa said. “I think [the football seniors] learned a little bit today, what water polo entails.”

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo