Breakers ease past Chino in CIF opener

LAGUNA BEACH — Max McCarter was a wall in the second half.

He made 14 saves Wednesday afternoon and gave up just two goals, an impressive ratio for McCarter and the Laguna Beach High boys’ water polo team. In the fourth quarter, he made several of the saves in rapid-fire variety, earning cheers from the Breakers crowd at their home pool.

But McCarter is a freshman, and backup goalie to Erik Henrikson. Just the fact that he was in the game in the first place was good news for the Breakers, who rolled to a 25-5 victory over Chino in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division III playoffs.

Laguna Beach faces Great Oak in an away quarterfinal match at 3:15 p.m. today. Great Oak defeated Redlands East Valley, 15-12, Wednesday in another first-round match.

A victory over Great Oak, and the Breakers would advance to the semifinals at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Mt. San Antonio College.

Those games will likely be tougher than playing a hardworking but overmatched Chino squad. The Breakers led the Cowboys, the third-seeded team out of the Sierra League, 9-1 after a quarter.

“We just played as a team today, really,” Breakers sophomore Nolan McConnell said. “We had our frosh-soph team in there scoring goals on their varsity team; it was awesome. That doesn’t happen a lot. [The starters] usually in there four quarters but this time we got to relax and watch our ‘B’ team play and score a lot.”

It only took McConnell one quarter to score his team-high five goals. Yet he was also one of just several stat-stuffers for Laguna Beach (18-11). Sophomore Tommy Renner had four goals, and junior Tyler Mancusso added three.

Seniors Zack Reigler and Robert Chew, junior Jack Clark and freshman Cameron Hauer each had two goals for the Breakers. David Brunner, Nicky Brunner and Spencer Dodson scored one each for Laguna Beach, which countered well and also went five for seven in man-advantage situations.

“We’ve been pushing the counterattack a lot lately,” Coach Ethan Damato said. “I think we’re the fastest team in our division, so we’re going to be pushing the pace and rolling. I think we’re at our best when we’re moving everywhere and everyone’s contributing.”

Should third-seeded Laguna Beach get to the semifinals, it may find a matchup with second-seeded Montebello, the defending CIF champion that knocked out the Breakers in that semifinal round a year ago. Montebello is 2-0 against Laguna Beach this year, but both of those were early-season games in September. The Oilers won those contests by scores of 11-9 and 14-6, respectively.

The Laguna girls’ team also beat Montebello in February to win the CIF Southern Section Division II title.

“That’s definitely a rivalry, right there,” McConnell said. “We’ve had two chances this season already and haven’t succeeded, but we really, really want to beat Montebello in the semis.”