Senior Nic Prentice made a play in the second period that epitomized the dominating performance turned in by the San Marcos boys water polo team in Saturday’s 8-5 CIF-SS Division 2 quarterfinal victory against Riverside Poly at the Elings Aquatic Center.
San Marcos was leading 4-2 when a Riverside Poly player intercepted a pass in its end and decided to throw a back-pass to the goalie to start an attack. Prentice read the play, picked off the pass and scored.
Prentice and the Royals were a force at both ends of the pool in building an 8-3 advantage before Riverside Poly tacked on two goals in the fourth period to make the final score more respectable.
“We had a clear game plan,” said Prentice, who led all scorers with five goals and sparked the defense with four steals. “They had a great center and we decided to drop (on defense) and shut him down, and Sam Rich in goal finished it off for us.
“So happy with our performance and excited to be hosting the semifinals at Dos Pueblos on Wednesday.”
The top-seeded Royals (23-10) will play Portola (a 16-11 winner over Crean Lutheran) as part of a semifinal doubleheader at the EAC on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. Dos Pueblos will take on second seed Ventura in the other semifinal at 5 p.m. Ventura beat Irvine, 9-8.
Prentice got San Marcos going right away, taking a feed from Hudson Macleod and burying it. He scored again off a crossing pass from Luke Burns making it a 2-1 game in the first period.
After Beppe Martinez tied the score for the Bears (31-9), the Royals went off for three straight goals in the second period and never looked back. Alden Klein finished from the outside, Jake Magid took a lead pass from Klein and beat the goalie one on one and Prentice made his stunning back-breaking play.
“I saw the (Riverside Poly) player looked a little scared with the ball and he was ready to pass it back to the goalie, as they often do,” Prentice explained of the situation. “So I just read it and once the goalie lost the ball I just jumped on it and finished it off.”
Coach Peera Sukavivatanachai said the play “is super risky but it’s high risk, high reward for him.”
Prentice continued to create havoc for Riverside Poly by getting inside water for another goal and a 6-3 lead with 52 seconds left in the second period.
Prentice said it was “exciting” to have the opportunity to take it to an opponent.
“I had some lucky matchups. Our center took the best defender away, so it gave me the opportunity to work around and get some goals.”
Coach Peera, who is taking the Royals to the semifinals for the second straight year, was pleased with the team’s performance in the three quarters they controlled.
“I like that defense was the name of the game for us,” he said. “We did a lot of research on this team and we knew number nine, Rafael (Martinez) was just an amazing player, super explosive out of center. We knew he had to be double teamed then force those other guys on the perimeter to step up and score. The shots we gave up today were the ones we were comfortable with, especially in that first half.”
It was the second lowest goal total by Riverside Poly this season. The Bears lost a 12-4 decision to Davis early in the season.
Martinez was held scoreless, while DeVincenzo scored two goals to lead the team.
The Royals again showed their versatility as several players stepped up to do the dirty work of shutting down Martinez and the Bears’ offensive flow.
“We have depth and we know that we utilize it,” said Coach Peera. “Just a lot of mobility, we have two-to-three large centers, so it’s very easy to just swap out Luke Burns and AJ Scarborough. They’re very interchangeable and they play very similar. They’re very aggressive at center.
“We have a lot of depth and we use it to our advantage.”
As his Royals head into the semifinals, Coach Peera said there are plenty of players on the roster who were part of last year’s squad that fell to top seed San Clemente, 14-9.
“We’re excited for another opportunity and hopefully we’ll come out of it on top. We graduated nine seniors last year, but we have six or seven guys who were on the team, so they have that experience. We’re ready.”
