Sea Kings lay it on the line

Bryce Alderton

Corona del Mar High boys water polo coach Sam Bailey isn’t expecting

anything fancy when his second-seeded Sea Kings face Foothill, the

No. 3 seed, in a CIF Southern Section Division I semifinal at 5:30

tonight at Irvine High.

“It should be a true old-fashioned battle,” said Bailey, in his

first year guiding the Sea Kings (20-8).

Both CdM and Foothill (21-8), champions of the Pacific Coast and

Sea View leagues, respectively, feature high-powered offenses that

will require the utmost attention by opposing defenders.

“Foothill is very solid,” Bailey said. “Their two-meter set is as

dominant as ever and they move the ball well on the perimeter. I

don’t see any weaknesses.”

The winner of tonight’s contest will face either top-seeded Long

Beach Wilson or Harvard-Westlake, who battle at 7 tonight at the same

site, for the section championship. The title will be decided at 8:15

p.m. Tuesday at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.

The Sea Kings have outscored their first two playoff opponents,

Laguna Hills and Loyola, 28-10, including a 16-goal outburst against

the Cubs Tuesday.

Senior captain Thomas Pearson, a first-team all-league honoree

last season, leads the Sea Kings with 52 goals (excluding four games)

followed by juniors Tom Money (34), Jacob Murphy (31) and Bryan

Buhagiar (20). Spencer Pirdy leads CdM with 25 assists.

CdM has won 12 of its last 13, including a 9-5 victory over

Foothill in the semifinals of the TruWest Memorial Cup Oct. 30.

Pearson paced CdM with four goals.

The Knights, though, were missing one of their key players in

senior Damjan Dudic, who was serving a five-game suspension for his

actions during a nonleague game the previous week against Villa Park.

“Last time, we were fortunate [the Knights] didn’t have part of

their starting lineup,” Bailey said. “We were able to get some

shooting room and the defense stepped up.”

Money leads the Sea Kings with 23 steals while Murphy has 18.

Senior goalkeeper Gaston Sanford has made more than 152 saves.

The Knights had the upper hand in a 12-9 victory in CdM’s second

game of the season.

Foothill downed Millikan, 12-4, before its 8-5 quarterfinal

victory over El Toro Tuesday.

J.W. Krumpholz, a member of the United States national youth team,

is another potent weapon for Foothill.

CdM has won 12 section titles, the most recent in 2001.