Playing One-Man Up Is a Definite Advantage

In basketball, free throws can make the difference in a game.

In hockey, the power play provides the perfect chance for a team to attack an opponent’s goal.

Similarly, the water polo teams that take advantage of their six-on-five opportunities tend to enjoy the most success.

Consider Chino Hills Ayala, which recently beat La Canada, 11-1, in a girls’ playoff game. The Bulldogs scored six times in eight man-advantage chances and limited their opponent to one goal in 13 similar situations.

“That was the game right there,” Coach Doug Druary said. “I knew we had a bunch.”

Converting such opportunities -- awarded when a foul prompts a player’s brief ejection -- during water polo’s 20-second version of the power play is never more important or telling than during the playoffs, when fewer offensive opportunities may arise and the scores are close because of top-quality competition.

Riverside Poly, the Southern Section Division V runner-up last season, found that out the hard way. The Bears scored only twice in 13 man-advantage situations during the division championship game and lost to Upland, 11-8.

“I mean, come on, that’s one of the main things you should be able to score off of,” Riverside Poly junior utility player Sam Greenawalt said with a bitter laugh. “We felt that we were really good at them, then we had that game. But it was a tough situation. It made us work harder this year.”

Riverside Poly is not unique in its tough big-game experiences in six on fives, but the Bears have tried to keep the problems from recurring this season.

“It’s something that we work on every day,” Coach Maurizio Dubuisson said. “You couldn’t tell by that game, but the next time, it could go our way.”

An offensive conversion rate of 50% to 60% is considered good and usually necessary for success in a game or season. Because of the one-man advantage, the defensive stoppage rate should be much better than that, with opponents turned away 70% to 75% of the time.

Achieving those figures on a consistent basis takes considerable time and effort.

The best teams, such as four-time Division I champion Santa Ana Foothill, may devote as much as 45% of its practice time to six on five. During games, some teams will drive more than others on opponents in pointed attempts to draw fouls and the resulting ejections.

The quick shot by a fouled player just as the ejected player swims off to the penalty corner is a favorite tactic of teams trying to capitalize on man-advantages. Passes to the wings also are effective, especially if a left-hander is on the right side because he will be able to get a shot off more quickly than a right-hander in the same spot.

Irvine Woodbridge senior Meredith Brandon, who is left-handed, scored many of her 31 goals this season during exclusions, and right-handed teammate Jacquelyn Gauthier, a Stanford-bound senior who had 122 goals, was adept at drawing the attention of the defense -- and a team-leading 79 ejections on opponents.

Their efforts helped the Warriors convert nearly 51% of their man-advantage opportunities, and they gave up opposing man-up goals only 32% of the time.

Woodbridge had only one man-up goal in two chances in its first-round playoff loss to Santa Margarita last week. The Eagles, meanwhile, converted twice in four chances -- Darby Anderson and Mary Cousineau each scored during six on fives.

Five or six opportunities per game is considered average. No matter the number of chances, however, teams will do their best to take advantage of the advantage.

“It has become more and more important,” Woodbridge Coach Dion Gray said. “In certain games, those are the best opportunities.”