Boys’ Water Polo: Mustangs romp over Eagles
By the time the Costa Mesa High cheerleaders arrived just before halftime, Mustang water polo fans didn’t need cheering up.
Costa Mesa’s boys’ water polo team left no doubt in Wednesday’s Battle for the Bell game, using an impressive counterattack to cruise to a 15-2 victory in an Orange Coast League game at Estancia High.
Costa Mesa won the Bell game in the pool for the fourth straight year. On Thursday, the Mustangs get another test in their league finale.
The Mustangs (18-6, 4-0 in league) play host to defending champion Laguna Beach. The Breakers are also 4-0 in league, so the game will decide the league title.
Mesa knows it is a heavy underdog in the game, which was rescheduled from earlier this month. Laguna Beach is the top-ranked team in CIF Southern Section Division 3, while Costa Mesa is unranked. And the powerhouse Breakers have never lost a league game since the Orange Coast League was formed in 2006, claiming eight straight league titles.
“We’re going to be prepared as [we can],” said Costa Mesa Coach Dustin Serrano, who coaches his alma mater with his twin brother Cody. “We worked hard all year. Didn’t really have much time to put the team together, it’s a brand new team working together. [Laguna’s] a solid team. They have 13 returning seniors, I think. They have the numbers, so we’ll see. We’ll see if the boys are ready.”
Costa Mesa certainly looked ready against Estancia (7-13, 2-3), which will miss the playoffs after finishing fourth in league. The Mustangs have built momentum after winning the Garden Grove tournament last weekend. They’re currently riding a nine-game winning streak.
They took a 10-0 halftime lead on Wednesday. Overall, the visitors scored the first 12 goals of the game until Estancia’s Jason Chesemore scored on a penalty shot in the third quarter, drawn by teammate Aaron Will. Costa Mesa keeper Ivan Shikhelman nearly had that block too, initially stopping it with his arm before it trickled into the net.
Dustin Serrano said that Shikhelman, who had six saves and four steals, is the Mustangs’ most improved player. He had to take over in the cage after two-time Daily Pilot Newport-Mesa Dream Team selection James Rydjeski transferred to Edison. Shikhelman is the anchor of a tough Mesa defense that also includes set defenders Quinn Smith, a senior, and freshmen Jacob Fleaner and Anthony Shin.
“Ivan’s improved leaps and bounds this whole year,” Serrano said. “He’s really working on his fundamentals and getting out of the cage. It’s hard playing on the JV level and stepping up to the varsity level your junior year, and stepping into James Rydjeski’s shoes. I think he’s outgrown them. I wouldn’t doubt if he’d be the top goalie in the league next year. He has to be one of the top ones right now.”
Angel Rosado, a junior, led the Mustangs with four goals. Seniors Matt Brown and Smith scored three each, while Jacob Roman, Jorge Miranda, Raymond Andrade, Jacob Petersen and Blake Hudson each scored one goal each. The Mustangs converted all three of their power-play opportunities, while holding the Eagles scoreless in three such chances.
Rosado and Miranda are transfers from Puerto Rico. But Brown, a team captain who led Costa Mesa with six steals, said they have fit in well.
“I think we came into this game very prepared, mentally prepared,” Brown said. “We warmed up well, stuck to our [game plan]. We’re playing to the best of our ability, which as a senior, I’m really glad about. The team chemistry is all very good. We all get along, and everything’s going well.”
Will scored the other goal for Estancia. Chesemore and Eli Sperling led the Eagles with two steals each, while goalie John Leal made five saves and had four steals in what Coach John Carpenter called one of his best games of the season.
The Eagles just couldn’t keep up with the speedy Mustangs.
“They’re super-fast,” Carpenter said. “I think nine of their first 10 goals were on counterattacks, but I was proud of [my players] in the second half. I said to them, ‘Give them a battle in the second half.’ I’m proud of them for sticking to the game plan and just fighting hard all the way through. We were driving and playing pretty solid defense. They scored on counters, but when we actually had them in our front-court defense, we did pretty well.”
Carpenter said he thinks the Mustangs have a good chance to do pretty well against the Breakers, too.
“It should be a really good swim meet,” he said. “Laguna will just swim you like crazy, but after seeing Mesa’s counterattack, they’re definitely going to hang with them on the swimming. That should be a really interesting game. Mesa is solid.”
