Crescenta Valley water polo blows out Culver City in CIF opener

PASADENA — Fresh off an outright Pacific League boys’ water polo title, Crescenta Valley High got back in the water to take on wild-card winner Culver City in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division IV playoffs.

After a sluggish beginning, host Crescenta Valley caught fire, ignited by Reagan Hesse, and put away the visiting Centaurs, 19-5, on Thursday afternoon at Pasadena City College to advance into the quarterfinals for the third season in a row.

“We had a slow start, but I think Culver City came out ready to play. They did a good job of playing the way they should play facing elimination,” CV Coach Jan Sakonju said.

The Falcons will face Arroyo Grande on Saturday in the quarterfinals on the road at 2 p.m. Crescenta Valley defeated Arroyo Grande earlier in the season in nonleague play, 8-7.

“[Arroyo Grande] won their game and they are not happy with the way they played either,” Sakonju said. “So, both teams, both coaches, are looking to get more out of their players for the next round. They will need to because either team can win that game.

Going into the second quarter, which would be dominated by Hesse, Crescenta Valley (24-6) clung to a one-goal advantage after a goal in the final minute of the first by the Falcons junior, who finished with a game-high six goals, to break a 2-2 tie with Culver City (11-8).

“In the next game, we’ve just got to focus really hard on the first quarter, because we lacked in the first quarter this game,” Hesse said.

In the second period, Hesse got behind the Culver City defense, spun away from contact and, with a Centaur draped on top of him, fired a shot into the back of the net with 5:52 left.

“That is the way this team has been. When other guys aren’t producing, someone has stepped up,” CV Coach Jan Sakonju said. “I think that has been a strength this season.”

Hesse collected his second goal of the period with 3:59 left by once again turning away from a defender to get the shot off. Hesse finished his second quarter hat trick with his fourth goal overall with 3:29 left off a Vasil Halchev assist.

“That is what we talked about in between quarters was at least Reagan is putting it away because the rest of us were playing so sloppy,” Sakonju said.

Culver City scored the next goal, but Falcon David Komjathy streaked down the left side of the pool and skipped a shot in to make the score 7-3 in favor of the hosts at the break.

“We didn’t expect to play as well in the first two quarters against them,” Culver City Coach Nestor Dordoni said. “The first two quarters were really good and then they started countering us. [CV] is a really fast team, a really fast team.”

It was Komjathy who scored the first goal of the contest 1:59 into the first period. However, Culver City, the No. 3 qualifier out of the Ocean League, put in the next two goals to briefly take the lead. Halchev then knotted the game at 2 off an assist from Jesse Sullivan. That led to Hesse swimming the length of the pool before juking to his left and finding the back of the net with 26 seconds left to give the Falcons a lead they would never relinquish.

Crescenta Valley blew the game open in the third quarter by scoring the first four goals. Julian Bartolone had two sandwiched around another from Halchev. Hesse finished the onslaught from in close with 1:42 to go.

The Falcons carried a seven-goal cushion into the final period and doubled the advantage by the final horn while holding Culver City scoreless. Falcon Brandon Fernandez had two of three goals in the period and Hesse recorded his sixth. Cameron Kober scored both of his goals in the final two minutes with the final score coming from Noah Kim on a lob shot with 16 seconds to go.