Oilers shut down OLu

Ryan Hurst made two field blocks Saturday afternoon for the Huntington Beach High boys’ water polo team, and the senior defender made sure Orange Lutheran knew about it.

“What’s up!” Hurst exclaimed after blocking a shot out of bounds midway through the third quarter. He said no words, but let out another yell after another field block late in the fourth.

What’s up is that Hurst and the Oilers had reason to feel excited after shutting down the Lancers defensively. Huntington Beach had its way, winning 7-3 in a nonleague battle of CIF Southern Section Division 1 powers at Ocean View High.

The Sunset League champion Oilers (20-3), ranked No. 2 in Division 1, solidified that ranking a week before the playoff brackets are released. Orange Lutheran (20-3), which can claim the outright Trinity League title with a win at St. John Bosco on Wednesday, is ranked No. 3 in Division 1.

The teams are familiar. Last year, Huntington Beach knocked Orange Lutheran out of the playoffs with a 10-9 overtime win in the quarterfinals.

Senior center Quinten Osborne scored four goals Saturday for Huntington Beach, all in the first half as the Oilers built a 4-1 lead at the intermission. Hurst also made four steals and was part of a strong defense also led by senior goalie Patrick Saunders, who made 10 saves.

“Hurst and Patrick, that’s the spine of the team, as far as defense goes,” Huntington Beach Coach Sasa Branisavljevic said. “[But] everybody needs to step up on defense in order for it to work, regardless of their better players. The defense was cohesive, and that’s why we allowed only three goals ... Defense is what wins championships. As long as we play defense like this, we’re going to be OK.”

The Oilers, who earned their 11th straight victory, never trailed. They took a 2-0 lead after scoring on their first two possessions of the game. After junior Jacob Cavano won the opening sprint, Osborne turned and scored at center. Twenty-six seconds later, he did it again, and the Oilers had the two-goal advantage with 6:17 remaining in the first quarter.

Osborne also drew two exclusions for Huntington Beach, which converted two of three power-play opportunities while holding Orange Lutheran to three for eight with the extra player. The Lancers, who played most of the game without junior standout Ash Molthen, did not score a “natural” (even-strength) goal.

“I’m sure that they’re going to make some changes for the next game, make some adjustments,” Branisavljevic said. “Quinten was open quite often. If we’re able to open him up like that, I don’t think there’s anybody that can stop him one on one if he gets the ball properly.”

Orange Lutheran Coach Steve Carrera said that Molthen, who is a close second to teammate Hannes Daube with 63 goals this season, and senior Josh Orrick were battling sickness and dealing with some “nicks and bruises.” Neither started the game. Molthen played sparingly, coming in to start the fourth and exiting midway through that quarter.

“We’re just trying to get them as healthy as possible and get ready for the playoffs,” Carrera said. “We didn’t want to push it when we didn’t need to ... I think we did a great job considering who was in. Thankfully it happens now and not later.”

Huntington Beach’s lead was cut to 4-2 when the Lancers’ Parker Killion scored his second goal, on the power play with 6:23 remaining in the game. But the Oilers had an answer. Junior lefty Curtis Jarvis, who had been excluded twice early in the game, came alive for Huntington Beach.

He scored from the right side as a power play ended to push the lead back to three goals. Then, after Huntington Beach senior captain Ethan Wojciechowski stole Molthen’s entry pass, the Oilers were off to the races. Cavano made a nice move to score on the other end, for a 6-2 lead with 4:33 left to go.

Jarvis provided his team’s final goal on an outside shot with 1:50 remaining, before Daube could respond for the Lancers with a six-on-five strike.

“It’s definitely a great win, especially because of how we controlled them the whole game and just played our game,” Jarvis said. “For me, getting two [kickouts] in the first quarter, I can’t play until the third and it’s hard. Our team loses offense. But we have a good team, we’re deep, we have guys who can fill the role when they need to. They ended up getting the job done.

“What’s great about our team is that we can put teams away in a bunch of different ways. If they’re trying to press us out, we can get them quick at center. We can get them on counter. We can put teams away a bunch of different ways and do what we do.”

Wojciechowski had a pair of steals and a field block for Huntington Beach, which also received two assists from Cavano.

The Oilers conclude the regular season with their final Sunset League game, Wednesday at 6 p.m. against Edison at Newport Harbor High.

Huntington Beach expects to receive the No. 2 seed in Division 1, but still could move up if top-ranked Harvard-Westlake loses its Mission League finale on the road against No. 8-ranked Los Angeles Loyola on Wednesday.

“For these last few years, we’ve been a really good team and solid team but we’ve been a young team also,” Jarvis said. “All of our guys are growing up personally and professionally, as far as the game goes. I think we’re definitely getting that chemistry and getting that inspiration. We’re all fired up, and we’re all looking forward to every game from here on out.”