Nathan Mollat / Daily Journal A Mills defender grabs Mallory Mariucci’s arm as she winds up for a shot during Sequoia’s 16-10 win. Mariucci still managed to score three goals during the victory.

Sequoia easily swept host Mills on Wednesday, with the boys winning 24-11 and the girls prevailing 16-10. The theme of the day was that defense was in short supply. The girls’ match was expected to be closer given the fact that both squads came in with perfect 4-0 records.

But the Cherokees (5-0 Ocean Division, 9-2 overall) quickly showed why they’re the team to beat. After Mills (4-1, 5-1) scored the first goal, Sequoia answered with four straight tallies over the next two minutes, each by a different player. Alyssa Endo, who had a match-high seven goals, scored her first goal to give the Cherokees a 4-1 lead midway through the first quarter.

The Vikings trailed 6-3 after the first period but made a game of it in the second. They outscored Sequoia 5-3 in that span, culminating in a Lexi Chierci five-meter penalty shot to cut their deficit to 9-8 with 53 seconds left until halftime. But that’s as close as Mills would get. The Cherokees came out in the third and buried the host side, scoring five unanswered.

And they made it look easy — too easy. Endo, Mallory Mariucci (three goals) and Sarah Beach (three goals) made it a habit to camp out in front of the Mills goal, where they would receive passes and promptly score from close range. Endo’s nifty turnaround shot from four meters capped Sequoia’s third-period surge, making it 14-8 with 20 seconds left to play until the start of the fourth.

From there, the Cherokees cruised to victory, posting a win at Mills for the first time in a long time. That gave plenty of satisfaction for fourth-year Sequoia coach Dave Knochenhauer, who has seen his fair share of disappointments playing in Mills’ shallow pool, which doesn’t exactly lend itself to great water polo play.

“It’s hard to play here because the kids can stand up and teams don’t have to swim as much,” Knochenhauer said. “It’s a different game than what we’re used to playing at our pool. This place is also a lot narrower. Overall I thought the girls played well and hopefully we can keep this going.”

Megan Beach added two goals for Sequoia. Chierci (five goals) and Kristen Lee (four goals) accounted for nine of Mills’ 10 goals. The score would’ve been worse had it not been for the efforts of Vikings goalie Melissa Co, who came up with a number of spectacular, point-blank saves. While the Cherokees are the clear front runners to win the Ocean, they still play Mills again along with Terra Nova.

Sequoia beat the Tigers 7-6 two weeks ago. Meanwhile, the Sequoia boys will face no such challenge inside Ocean play.

To say the Cherokees (4-0, 6-1) have dominated would be a vast understatement. Wednesday’s win was simply their latest blowout victory — they opened the week with a 26-11 beatdown of San Mateo. The two-time Ocean Division champions are a lock for a three-peat, but coach Frank Mecchi is trying to instill some added discipline on defense.

“We’re still giving up too many goals,” he said. “It’s the lack of experience. Basically our entire team is juniors, and we lost five starters from last year’s team. My goal is to get them to play better defense.”

Sequoia’s Big Three of Alvaro Anduluz, Oscar Anduluz and Zeke Edwards were unstoppable. Edwards matched his cap number by scoring 10 goals, while Alvaro Anduluz finished with seven goals and Oscar Anduluz had four. Michael Mischke added two tallies and Brent Grubb one, and goalie Pat Bassett had another solid performance, making a number of saves.

The Cherokees scored in every way imaginable — off counters, fast breaks, from long distance and extreme angles. Their shots were powerful, too, as they slammed the goal padding loud enough for everyone at pool side to hear. Oliver Lorenz led Mills with seven goals. One of the best players in the division, Lorenz’s best score came late in the third when he was submerged before rising up for a shot from five meters. But the Cherokees were simply too tough.

Now they’re hoping to improve enough to win a game in the Peninsula Athletic League tournament, something they’ve failed to do in the last two years, losing both times in close matches with Woodside. The Ocean winner plays at the No. 5 seeded team from the Bay Division in the opening round of the league playoffs. In order for Sequoia to reverse its shortcomings against Bay opponents, it will have to improve defensively while also staying strong on its attack. The Anduluz brothers and Edwards are excellent swimmers, making them a potent trio.

“And they’re fast,” Mecchi said. “Speed kills.”

It certainly has this season.