CdM stuffs Knights

For a photo gallery of this game, click here.

IRVINE — It’s not as if the Corona del Mar High girls’ water polo team morphs at halftime of its games, getting injected with a secret potion and coming out with superhuman strength.

But, right now, the Sea Kings aren’t allowing goals in the second half.

Period.

Foothill was the latest victim Saturday afternoon at Beckman High. Victoria Kennedy scored three goals, and tough defense turned a tied score at halftime into a 5-3 CdM win in the nonleague game.

“We’ve had to come from behind, but this game we wanted to come out really tough and just keep playing hard,” said junior set player Leslee Kaczmarek, who scored a goal and drew three Foothill exclusions. “One of our priorities in practice is defense. That’s the focus in most of our games; it’s defense first and offense second.”

The Sea Kings (13-5) kept Foothill (13-5) scoreless in the second half to win their eighth straight game. CdM hasn’t given up a goal in the second half of its last three games, which also includes a Pacific Coast League contest against Laguna Hills on Wednesday and the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions title game against rival Newport Harbor on Jan. 12.

In fact, since giving up a second-half goal to Dos Pueblos in a TOC semifinal, the Sea Kings have gone more than 53 minutes without allowing another one after the halftime break. So why have they been so successful after the intermission?

“They just tough it up,” CdM Coach Aaron Chaney said. “We played good five-on-six defense in the second half.”

Kennedy scored the go-ahead goal in the third quarter for CdM, ranked No. 2 in the CIF Southern Section Division I coaches’ poll. Kennedy spun around her defender before emerging from under water and scoring with her left hand. She then scored her game-high third and final goal with 6:14 left in the fourth quarter, on the power play and assisted by Heather Van Hiel.

CdM proved relentless on defense, and with some intelligence on offense, showed Saturday the Sea Kings just could vault into the top spot in the rankings.

No. 3-ranked Foothill boasts an impressive center and set defender in USC-bound senior Emily Klug. But Kennedy said the Sea Kings countered that with some strategy of their own. It involved having both Kennedy and Kaczmarek in the game at the same time, trading off possessions at set.

“We have a little system where whoever has the best set guard [on her] doesn’t go into set,” Kennedy said. “We wanted to kind of take the weaker people into set. It’s extremely hard to set against Klug.”

Hard to guard her in the first quarter, too. That’s when Klug produced two consecutive five-meter penalty shots for the Knights.

Brittany Zwirner scored the first but CdM junior goalie Kate Baldoni (10 saves) dove right to block the second, preserving what was at the time a 1-1 tie.

“She’s a gamer,” Chaney said. “She misses the first one, and some people might get down on themselves. But ‘KB’ is just going to rise to the occasion.”

Foothill led twice in the second quarter, but the Sea Kings got game-tying scores from Kennedy and Kaczmarek. The latter goal, on an entry pass from Kate Berry, knotted the score just 44 seconds before halftime.

CdM senior Allison Peotter, who won all four quarter-starting sprints, also scored the game’s first goal on the counterattack after a long pass from Baldoni. CdM junior Elise Molnar played her usual solid two-meter defense against Klug, who scored once.

After the game, Foothill provided a sandwich lunch for CdM in a nice gesture. But Knights Coach Dave Mikesell, whose team had beaten CdM four straight times in the last two years before this loss, was left to reflect on why his team lost its intensity.

“It was just like the switch was turned off,” Mikesell said. “The kids were playing really well for a half. That was the best half we’ve played all year. We went into halftime tied, and the engine just stopped running. Corona’s kept on going.

“If you look at the season this year, anybody can lose at any given time. There’s parity. Newport Harbor loses to Wilson, we lose to CdM, and it’s just they beat us, we beat them ... Consistency’s the most important thing this season for any team. Aaron’s team played very consistent today, very hard today, and as a result they came away with the win.”

Nonleague

Corona del Mar 5, Foothill 3

SCORE BY QUARTERS

CdM – Kennedy 3, Peotter 1, Kaczmarek 1. Saves – Baldoni 10.

F – Klug 1, Zwirner 1, Groff 1. Saves – Avetoom 7.

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or by e-mail at [email protected].