Defense is the key

Richard Dunn

After listening to Corona del Mar High boys water polo coach Tim

Salvino talk about tonight’s CIF Southern Section Division I

championship game against top-seeded and undefeated Long Beach

Wilson, you’d think the second-seeded Sea Kings (22-7) have the

advantage.

“Not only can we win it, we will win it with defense,” Salvino

said of the CIF title game at Belmont Plaza at 8:15 p.m.

The Sea Kings, who practiced Thursday and Friday night until 9

p.m. to prepare for the Division I showdown against the Bruins

(29-0), edged third-seeded Harvard-Westlake, 3-2, in the semifinals

Wednesday behind a strong defensive effort, which was led by

goalkeeper Beau Stockstill, two-meter guard John Mann, driver John

Money and driver Jason DiRocco.

Despite three previous losses to Long Beach Wilson this season,

Salvino still believes in his Sea Kings, who won the last three CIF

Division II championships, when Salvino was an assistant coach under

John Vargas, now at Stanford.

Long Beach Wilson, which rallied to beat El Toro in the

semifinals, 13-11, has captured five of the last six Division I

titles.

“It’s definitely in our favor if it’s a low-scoring game,” Salvino

said. “Underdog is the word to use to describe us, because they’re

such a prolific team as far as victories. But I go into this thing

thinking we’re the ones to beat. We’ve got nothing to lose and we’ve

got everything to gain -- the kids realize that and they’re totally

ready to go. The pressure’s on them. The pressure’s on Wilson.”

The Sea Kings, also led by senior Artie Dorr, who has played set

throughout most of the playoffs, beat Long Beach Poly, 18-2, in the

first round and knocked off Foothill, 6-5, in the quarterfinals. Ryan

Moore, David DiRocco and Griffin Gentry have also been solid in the

postseason for Corona del Mar, which is aiming for the program’s 13th

CIF title.

“We’ve played (the Bruins) three times and been in the game with

them all three times,” Salvino said. “We just made mistakes at the

wrong time of the game and it ended up costing us ... obviously we

need to score some goals, but our defense has been our strong suit

throughout the season. We’ll do what we need to do to get a goal

scored. Our mission is to keep their goal total lower than ours and I

feel confident we can do that with our great team defense.”

The Bruins, led by Thomas Hale, Clint Wilson and Matt Norris,

defeated Loyola in the opening round, 14-7, and Laguna Beach in the

quarterfinals, 7-5.

Salvino played on Servite’s 1982 CIF 2-A championship team and

coached with Vargas the past three seasons, but this is his first

appearance in a CIF title game as a head coach. CdM lost to Long

Beach Wilson twice early in the season by identical 10-7 accounts,

and lost to the Bruins, 11-9, in the NorCal Tournament.