The most telling comment may have come from one of the game’s referees, who leaned over to the scorer’s table during the early barrage.
“They may cover the spread on this,” the referee joked.
Coast went on to defeat Lyons Water Polo Club of Illinois, 13-3, Saturday afternoon in its second and final pool-play game. The pair of wins ensure Coast’s entry into the tournament’s Platinum Division, consisting of the top 24 teams, beginning with today’s game.
Things may get tougher for Coast, but that’s all right with Coach Colin Mello, the former UC Irvine men’s water polo standout who was a first-team All-American in 2007.
“We know we’re the No. 1 seed, but I’m telling these guys you can’t think about it that way,” Mello said. “It’s one team against another team, it doesn’t matter if it’s [No.] 1 vs. 100 or one vs. two. It’s still one team vs. another, and you have to work on the same things you’re going to work on no matter what: playing smart, defense, just the fundamentals.”
Coast certainly appeared fundamentally sound against the Houston “B” team. Watson scored six goals, Bergeson had four and the other was put in by Miles Carpenter.
Perhaps more impressively, Coast didn’t allow a goal until Houston’s Evan Waidhofer scored on a six-on-five with 28 seconds left in the game.
“We want to come out at the beginning of every game and play like you don’t know who [the opponents] are, just come out with full intensity,” Bergeson said. “To get an early lead like that definitely helps, and we want to keep defense up the whole game and play as a team.”
