Mater Dei turns back Huntington Beach in boys’ water polo

Heading into Wednesday’s nonleague showdown at Huntington Beach, Mater Dei High boys’ water polo coach Chris Segesman said he didn’t talk to his team about the last time the Monarchs played the Oilers.

Huntington Beach knocked off defending CIF Southern Section Division 1 champion Mater Dei last year in the Division 1 playoff quarterfinals, on the way to the Oilers’ first CIF title game in program history. But the squads are markedly different in 2017.

“Huntington deserved to win that game, but that’s not our motivation,” Segesman said. “Our motivation is this year, and just getting a win against a really good team.”

The Monarchs all but assured themselves of doing so on Wednesday night at the Oilers’ pool with a strong first quarter. They then rode the wave to a lopsided 17-6 victory.

Newport Beach resident Jack Seybold, a senior who’s committed to Stanford, led Mater Dei (8-1) with five goals and four steals. The Monarchs started quickly, jumping out to a 5-0 advantage in the first quarter on Seybold’s steal and score. Only then were the Oilers able to get on the scoreboard, with senior Curtis Jarvis scoring a six-on-five goal on a power play drawn by senior center Garrett Zaan.

“We just played really well,” said Segesman, whose team also got two goals each from Newport Beach resident Warren Loth and Huntington Beach resident Cooper Haddad. “We executed in our transition, we put away our six-on-fives, we played great defense on [Jake] Cavano and Zaan at two meters … I would have never dreamed that we would be up 6-1 in the first quarter, but that established the rest of the game.”

Mater Dei, ranked No. 2 in Division 1, didn’t back down against No. 6 Huntington Beach (3-4). The Oilers were able to cut their deficit to four goals three more times. The last time came early in the third quarter, when Cavano scored off a foul at six meters. That brought the Oilers within 9-5, with 5:51 remaining in the quarter. Cavano had two goals, tying him with Zaan for the team lead.

But the Monarchs ended the quarter with five straight goals. Two of them came back to back on Seybold penalty shots with 55 seconds remaining.

“There were a lot of missed opportunities, lots of mistakes that Mater Dei obviously capitalized on,” Huntington Beach coach Sasa Branisavljevic said. “They did a fantastic job, and we did not show up to play. They came to play, and we didn’t.

“It’s definitely a different team from last year. I like the team very much. I like the boys, it’s a very good group, but we’re going to have to find that common language in the water.”

The Oilers had mixed results last weekend at the Elite Eight tournament hosted by Harvard-Westlake, splitting games with the host Wolverines and earning fourth place. On Thursday, both Mater Dei and Huntington Beach open play at the South Coast Tournament. The Monarchs are the No. 2 seed, while the Oilers are seeded fifth in the 32-team field.

Huntington Beach opens the tournament Thursday at 5 p.m. at Corona del Mar High against Granite Hills. Should the Oilers win, they would likely play host CdM in the second round at 8 p.m.

“I honestly don’t know,” Branisavljevic said. “If we play like we played in the first game against Harvard, I think we have a good chance of beating CdM and beating Harvard the following day [Friday in the tournament quarterfinals] if we cross with them. If we play like we played today, then we are going to get knocked out in the second game against CdM.

“Hopefully, we show up.”

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo