Glendale, Flintridge Prep water polo have semis on mind
Should the Glendale High and Flintridge Prep boys’ water polo teams win their respective CIF Southern Section Division V quarterfinal road matches Saturday, they would meet in a semifinal match Wednesday.
Glendale Coach Forest Holbrook and Flintridge Prep Coach Dan Hare aren’t concerned about that. They’ve got more pressing issues to handle.
Top-seeded Glendale (19-5) will face Los Altos (16-14) at 5 p.m. today at Brenda Villa Aquatic Center in Commerce. Fourth-seeded Flintridge Prep (17-8) will travel to meet Riverside Poly (17-10) at 2 p.m. at Bobby Bonds Park’s Sippywoodhead Pool.
“Glendale has a very strong team, but you have to focus on your own match,” said Hare, whose team began the playoffs with a 12-7 win against Whittier on Wednesday at Burbank High. “We have to deal with Riverside Poly and I hear they are talented.
“We feel like we are ready to go. In this tournament, everybody has got a chance. You have to go into these games focusing on the things you’ve done well to get to this point and continue to keep your eyes open.”
Flintridge Prep, which finished second in the Prep League, got three goals and four assists from Ethan Vandeventer to turn back Whittier.
Riverside Poly, which took first in the Inland Valley League, netted a 12-5 first-round win against visiting Burroughs on Wednesday.
Glendale, which won the Pacific League championship for the second season in a row under Holbrook, began its playoff journey with a 19-10 win against JW North of Riverside at Burbank.
The Nitros received a match-high six goals from Arman Momdzhyan against North. Glendale also got five goals from Manuk Piloyan and two apiece from Levon Gevorkyan and Atak Arzumanyan.
The Nitros and Conquerors met during the regular season with Glendale posting a 16-11 nonleague win in October.
Holbrook said he’s expecting another tough matchup with Los Altos.
“They have a lot of good players,” Holbrook said. “It’s all about matchups and trying to get them in our favor.
“We had a big lead on them the first time and we were able to switch up our defense. We like our game plan right now.”
Los Altos, which tied for first in the Hacienda League, but went in as the second seed out of the league, started off the postseason Wednesday with a 21-6 win against El Rancho.
The other quarterfinal matches will feature second-seeded La Serna against host Burbank and third-seeded Pasadena Poly hosting Walnut.
The semifinal matches will be held Wednesday at 6 p.m. and 7:30 at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut. The championship match will begin at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 17 at William Woollett Jr. Aquatic Center in Irvine.
