From the archives: HMB headed to CCS

That was the round the league’s final Central Coast Section berth would be determined. The Ocean Division champion — in this case, Hillsdale — faced off against the Bay Division’s No. 4 team, which was Half Moon Bay.

The top three teams from the Bay Division — Menlo School, Menlo-Atherton and Woodside — all earned automatic bids to CCS already based on their finish in the Bay Division.

And the Cougars proved there is still quite a large chasm between the middle of the pack in the Bay Division and the champion of the Ocean Division. Half Moon Bay jumped out to a 4-0 lead midway through the first period and methodically pulled away for a 13-7 win over the Knights.

It is the Cougars’ first CCS berth since 2010 and only their second appearance ever.

“With what was at stake for us, I was a little apprehensive how we would come out,” said Half Moon Bay coach Justin Ferdinand. “You could definitely sense the nerves. [The players] knew what was at stake.”

Those nerves showed up when Half Moon Bay failed to convert on a breakaway less than three minutes into the match but, less than 20 seconds later, the Cougars took the lead for good when Tanner Islander scored off an assist from Tomas Castro-Santos as they converted on a 3-on-2.

It appeared once the Cougars scored their first goal, they settled down and played their style of water polo: high pressure, fast and physical.

“It’s press hard, press high and attack the ball,” Ferdinand said. “Fifteen kids played with me all summer and it shows. We put in the work during the summer.”

Less than a minute after Islander’s goal, the Cougars struck again. Castro-Santos’ shot from the left corner was blocked by Hillsdale goaltender Kevin O’Shaughnessy, but Hunter Murison ended up with the rebound and put it home for the first of his game-high four goals and a 2-0 Half Moon Bay lead.

“We’ve seen Half Moon Bay play a couple times. We scrimmaged them (at the beginning of the season),” said Hillsdale coach Renato Hodzic said. “We knew exactly what we were getting into.”

Islander scored his second goal of the first period at the 2:04 mark, taking a pass from Malcolm Feix in the hole set. Murison scored his second goal of the game off a fast-break counterattack, swimming on to a long pass from Cougars’ goalkeeper Mason Martuscelli, beating the Hillsdale defense to the other end of the pool and putting it away for a 4-0 Half Moon Bay lead.

“They’re a good team. They’re fast. They turned it into a swim meet,” Hodzic said. “They just outswam us today.”

Hillsdale, however, did not go quietly. After falling behind 4-0, the Knights rallied for a pair of late first-period goals. Justin Palisoc slammed home a cross-pool pass from Nicolas Patane for the Knights’ first goal and Patane got on the scoreboard when his shot from the point hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced into the net, cutting Hillsdale’s deficit to 4-2 after the first period.

Half Moon Bay continued to pour it on in the second period, outscoring Hillsdale 4-1 to take a 8-3 lead at halftime. Feix scored twice in the period for the Cougars, while Islander added a goal and an assist. Hillsdale’s lone goal came from Brody Eveslage, who took a pass from Curtis Cassin, shrugged off the Half Moon Bay defender and fired home a shot from the hole set.

Like it did during the first two quarters, Half Moon Bay continued to score early in the third, upping its lead to 10-3 less than two minutes into the second half off of goals from Murison and Feix. Hillsdale pulled one back off a goal from Eveslage, but Half Moon Bay pushed its lead back to seven with a goal from Logan Jaeger.

Cassin, Hillsdale’s leading scorer, got his first tally right before the end of the third. Cassin would add two more in the fourth, but it was too little, too late.

“I think 10 of their 13 goals were on counterattacks and we couldn’t stop the counterattacks,” Hodzic said. “We had a game plan we tried to focus on. I don’t know if it was nerves, but we didn’t execute it.”