CdM serves up Berry specialty

CORONA DEL MAR — After a back-and-forth game that lasted for almost seven periods, both the Corona del Mar High and Servite boys’ water polo teams were feeling a bit winded.

The best way for Sea King senior Mike Berry to earn everyone a break was to pull off a Berry specialty: score a goal.

And that’s what he did, skipping a shot past Servite goalie Andrew Mesanan with 55 seconds left in the third overtime. The goal, Berry’s fifth of the game, lifted Corona del Mar to an 11-10 nonleague win Tuesday at CdM.

It’s the second time in 10 days that the Sea Kings (12-6), ranked fourth in CIF Southern Section Division I, have beaten the Friars (12-5), ranked second in Division II. Corona del Mar also won a 9-8 decision in the semifinals of the Southern California Water Polo Invitational on Oct. 7.

“It was very important,” Berry said. “Beating them twice in a row just shows that we’re the better team. They can’t be like, ‘The first one was in a tournament and we were tired.’ There was no luck involved; we came to play.”

Senior goalie Brian Peotter also came to play. He finished with 12 saves, none bigger than a point-blank block on Servite’s Andrew LaForge in the second overtime.

“He’s so big,” Sea Kings Coach Barry O’Dea said of Peotter, who stands 6-foot-6. “He covers so much cage, and he comes up big at the right times.”

Peotter again blocked LaForge’s shot with 1:02 left in the sudden-death third overtime. Seven seconds later, Berry freed himself from two defenders, and his shot skipped over Mesesan and into the left-hand corner of the net.

“Berry’s got this little fire inside of him,” O’Dea said. “He keeps moving and keeps working. He’s a three-year varsity letterman, and he’s got a lot of experience.”

The game was tied 1-1 after the first, with CdM getting on the board on senior Ryan Hultman’s lob-shot goal. The Sea Kings then opened up a 4-2 lead with 2:03 left in the half, getting goals from Chris Cottrell and Nick Jones, who scored on a nice pass from Greg Sanford.

“I felt like we were running a pretty good defense to stop their offense,” Cottrell said. “We were constantly adapting, and they were changing it up a bit. But we practiced a lot for their specific offensive movement. I think that was really key to us winning.”

But Servite scored four goals in a row to take a 7-5 lead early in the third quarter. The Sea Kings battled back on goals from Berry and Ryan Kent to tie it at 7-all, before Servite’s Cruz Smithson scored a man-advantage goal to give the Friars an 8-7 lead headed into the fourth.

Kent, who played defense on Smithson much of the game, did a good job shutting him down after that.

“We changed our defense up in the fourth quarter because of Ryan,” O’Dea said. “He was doing such a great job guarding the two meters, that we went to a press. That was the best job he’s done at guarding the two meters.”

Servite still held a 9-8 lead in the final minute of regulation, but R.J. Baldoni’s shot off the right post went to Berry, who poked it in to force overtime.

The Friars again took the lead in the first overtime, before Kent converted a penalty-shot goal with 44 seconds left to tie the score at 10-all.

“At the end of the last game [against Servite], their coach kept saying ‘We’ll see you in 10 days,’” Kent said. “They were pretty pumped, and so we were pretty pumped to show them it wasn’t a fluke.”

Peotter made three consecutive blocks with under a minute left in the second overtime, and his block on LaForge in the third overtime led to Berry’s winning counterattack.

“I was more nervous earlier in the game than I was at the end,” Peotter said. “When it went into overtime, I calmed myself down right before it started. I just focused on doing the right things, like getting the angles right.”

For Corona del Mar, it was only the start of a big week. The Sea Kings play host to Irvine today in a Pacific Coast League contest, then face Newport on Saturday at 6 p.m. at Corona del Mar.

The Sea Kings expect to be ready for the challenge.

“This is our home pool,” Cottrell said. “Whenever we play in our home pool, we do a lot to make sure that we don’t take a loss.”

Nonleague

Corona del Mar 11, Servite 10 (3 OT)

Score by Period

Servite 1 3 4 1 1 0 0 — 10 CdM 1 3 3 2 1 0 1 — 11

Servite -- Cox 5, Smithson 3, Meyer 1, LaForge 1. Saves -- Mesesan 8.

Corona del Mar -- Berry 5, Kent 2, Hultman 1, Baldoni 1, Cottrell 1, Jones 1. Saves -- Peotter 12.