Corona del Mar humbled at El Toro

LAKE FOREST — El Toro High boys’ water polo coach Don Stoll was already starting to let up as the first half wound down.

His team, the No. 2-ranked squad in the CIF Southern Section Division I coaches’ poll, was having its way with No. 6-ranked Corona del Mar on Friday at the Chargers’ pool.

Time to stop being so aggressive, even if it wasn’t even halftime.

“We don’t need more goals,” Stoll yelled to his team. “We need defense.”

Neither area was a problem for the Chargers, who cruised to an 18-7 victory over the Sea Kings in the nonleague game.

It was El Toro junior Griffin White, who had been feeling sick the two days prior to the game, who left the Sea Kings (12-5) feeling woozy. White netted eight goals before being taken out late in the third quarter.

By then, the defending Division I champion Chargers (16-2) were already up, 15-4.

“We wanted to come out strong,” said White’s older brother, senior Spencer White, who scored twice and had three steals. “We were just taking it to them. In previous games, we’ve just been laid back and they’ve been scoring a bunch of goals on us in the beginning. So we fixed that, and we’re starting out strong now. We’re playing solid defense and working the counter[attack].”

Ninety seconds into the game and El Toro was ahead, 3-0, forcing CdM Coach Barry O’Dea to call a timeout.

The Sea Kings’ Brian Schiefer scored with the shot clock running down later in the quarter, trimming the lead to 4-1. But El Toro scored again just a minute later on a one-on-nobody, taking whatever momentum the Sea Kings might have had.

“We’ve got a lot of speed,” Stoll said. “Griffin White’s a 21.3 [seconds] in the 50 [yard freestyle], and Spencer’s a 22 flat. We don’t necessarily need all six guys to go, we just try to get a few guys open. Today it worked, some days it doesn’t.

“Corona del Mar’s a pretty good team, and they’ve been playing well,” Stoll added. “I watched them beat Harvard-Westlake last Saturday [in the Southern California Invitational]. I said to my guys, ‘If you don’t come with your ‘A’ game, you’ll be in a big battle.’ ”

O’Dea would watch the Chargers’ ‘A’ game produce many more goals against his Sea Kings.

“El Toro’s hard press into their counter, our guys didn’t react well to that,” O’Dea said. “I think that’s definitely our weakness, for right now.”

Also scoring for the Sea Kings were Jake Schwartz, Nick Klein, Timmy Rolfes, Michael Liao, Lucas Reynolds and Carter Taylor. Rolfes led the team with two steals, and senior Travis Leyton (eight saves) played goalie in the second half.

“I think some of our young guys need to figure out what varsity, Division I water polo is all about,” O’Dea said. “And they are; it’s not the end of the season here. No one is turning in the books yet and checking out, no one’s doing that. We’ll find out what went wrong today, watch some film and we’ll come back and do better the next time.”

CdM has a busy week ahead, including a home game against Servite on Tuesday, a Pacific Coast League game at Irvine on Wednesday and a battle at Back Bay rival Newport Harbor on Saturday.

“It’s a heck of a week coming up,” O’Dea said. “Hopefully we can recover from this.”

Nonleague

El Toro 18, Corona del Mar 7

SCORE BY QUARTERS

CdM – Klein 1, Schwartz 1, Liao 1, Reynolds 1, Schiefer 1, Taylor 1, Rolfes 1. Saves – Anderson 3, Leyton 8.

ET – G. White 8, Freerks 4, Renteria 2, S. White 2, Rascon 1, Westerfield 1. Saves – O’Connell 7, Baker 1.

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or by e-mail at matthew.szabo@latimes.com.