By Greg Mescall
The 18 and Under squad from El Rancho Water Polo permitted me to shadow their bench during their matchup with CHAWP at Capistrano Valley High School earlier today. Head Coach Sergio Macias who also heads up the team at Cerritos College brought his admittedly young group into a battle against one of the power clubs in Southern California. Here is what happened.
First Coach Macias addresses the team as they huddle prior to the start of the game, "This is our true test for the day, let's take it one quarter at a time, we have been playing well, let's continue to feed off each other and play hard, play smart, play all four quarters and don't give up."
The game begins with CHAWP winning the opening sprint but things start off in El Rancho's favor early as Kristyn Casas the goalie makes back to back saves. Then with 4:34 remaining in the period Georgiana Bray sneaks inside to score a goal and give El Rancho the lead. The girls from the Pico Rivera area of California are ecstatic with the early lead. With that Coach Macias implored the team to "be active" and immediately El Rancho makes a steal.
Enthusiasm is short lived on the bench as CHAWP takes advantage of an exclusion and scores with 3:11 remaining to tie the game at 1-1. That is followed by a skip shot score for CHAWP at the 1:39 mark and they build a 2-1 lead. El Rancho appears to be headed to the second quarter only down a score but as time ticks down in the first CHAWP steals the ball and converts with just a second left to take a 3-1 lead into the second stanza.
After the first, Coach Macias tells the team, "don't expect a foul, keep playing hard," but he is happy with his team as he tells me, "the effort is there, they haven't been rewarded yet, hopefully we will, and this will be a better game."
In the second quarter the veteran CHAWP squad which routinely sends players to the Division 1 level started to expand their lead taking a 4-1 advantage at the 4:44 mark and then going up 5-1 with 4:03 left in the half. When CHAWP goes up 6-1 Coach Macias makes wholesale changes in the group in the pool and puts in some fresh bodies. With 1:39 to go until half El Rancho is whistled for another exclusion and the bench groans. Something positive would happen soon however as the team draws a five meter and despite the lack of conversion they are upbeat.
As the half there is some reevaluation by Coach Macias as the team trails by five. "Our strength is not at center in this game, it is in driving, don't give up, they want you to play lazy offense, just keep constantly moving all game long. Your goalie is on fire right now, feed off her energy, our effort is there, it's just the execution," he concludes.
The third quarter is not a good one for El Rancho, they are unable to find the net while CHAWP continues to add scores. By the time the quarter comes to a close their opponent has taken a 6-1 lead and made it a 10-1 advantage. With this El Rancho knows that winning this game has just become very unlikely but it is no reason to give up.
"Let's get a 2 or a 3 (on the scoreboard), the game is not over yet, remember our goal every fourth quarter is to win that quarter," he says. After that the team joins hands for their customary chant of "Blue Pride!" and they jump in the water for the start of the quarter.
Things don't necessarily get better right away for El Rancho as CHAWP goes up 12-1 less than two minutes into the quarter. Coach Macias is still up on his feet imploring the team and takes a moment to explain a better shooting angle to a player who has just checked out. With 2:21 remaining in the game CHAWP builds a 13-1 lead but El Rancho wouldn't have it end that way. With 1:52 remaining CHAWP was excluded and El Rancho's Amber Smith was able to find the net to break the scoring drought and cut that deficit to 13-2.
That would be the final score and while the team from El Rancho had much higher hopes of staying with CHAWP until the end they are still in good spirits. "They are playing hard, the score isn't a good indicator of how they played," said Macias, he continued, "CHAWP had to earn goals and looking at our team everyone has smiles on, they are having a good time, that's what this is all about, I'm happy and they're happy."
