SHP boys' water polo team tunes up for big tournament with win

A year ago, SHP was taking on Menlo ahead of the South Coast Tournament and while the Gators came away with the win, 16-8, Gators head coach Brian Kreutzkamp was not happy.

This season, he feels a lot better heading down South as SHP scored early and often in a 20-4 win over the Padres.

“[Serra was] tough,” Kreutzkamp said. “We’re more talented and a lot of teams just roll over. They fought to the end.”

It’s been a trying preseason, so far, for SHP (2-0 WCAL, 2-0 overall). The Gators have been without a pool this school year, necessitating a move to Gunn High School for practice, where they get the last slot of the day.

“Getting home at 10 o’clock,” Kreutzkamp said. “It hasn’t been an awesome (start to the season). It’s been a long month.”

But that didn’t seem to affect the Gators, who scored on five of their first six shots and ended up scoring 20 goals on 30 shots. SHP opened the scoring less than 20 seconds into the match, with Charlie Wagner slamming home an Ario Hamrah cross-pool pass, from the right post to the left, for a 1-0 lead. Clay Carrington then converted a 5-meter penalty shot and the Gators were off to the races.

And with senior goalie Murdock Baker-Matsuoka stopping every Serra shot in the first period, there was little doubt about the outcome.

Baker-Matsuoka, who is still weighing college offers as he wraps up a four-year varsity career, was in midseason form, especially in the first period, as he stopped five Serra shots — including a pair of point-blank opportunities, one at each post. Baker-Matsuoka finished with 10 saves, all in the first half, before giving way to Wilkes Rohlen for the second half.

“Murdock had a great game,” Kreutzkamp said.

Serra head coach Tim Kates agreed. But he was pleased to see his team run its offense and put some pressure on the SHP cage. If not for Baker-Matsuoka standing on his head in the first half, the Padres might have been a bit closer than being down 11-2 at halftime.

“We had really good passing. We had some really good looks,” Kates said. “We were getting balls to our (key) guys and we were doing things with it.”

SHP led 6-0 after the first period and scored the first two goals of the second to lead 8-0 before Serra (0-2, 5-4) got on the scoreboard when Hunter Dempsey converted a Ryan Coffin pass from the left wing for the initial Padres’ strike.

The Gators responded with two more goals for a 10-1 lead before a strong individual effort led to Serra’s second goal. Colin Wright got the ball on the left point, battled with a defender, held him off and then beat Baker-Matsuoka for Serra’s second goal of the half with 35 seconds left.

But SHP wasn’t done as Oliver Marcin, a Princeton commit, scored on a dump down into the hole set from Gate Gamble to give the Gators an 11-2 lead at the break. Marcin led the offense for SHP, scoring a game-high four goals and assisting on three others. Clay Carrington, who will play at Harvard next year, added three goals and three assists. Wagner also netted a hat trick, with Eddie Eiref scoring twice.

The Gators kept up the pressure in the third period, scoring the first two goals of the second half before Kreutzkamp pulled most of his starters midway through the third period, leading 14-2.

Playing against the SHP second string, Serra scored a pair of unanswered goals. Alex Haag took a pass from Anthony Walsh and slipped a shot under the arm of the SHP goalie. That was followed by a goal from Max Vargas, off an assist from Henry Graham as Serra was down 14-4.

But Teddy Parrett got the SHP back on track, taking a long outlet pass from Rohlen and scoring on a fastbreak to give the Gators a 15-4 lead after three periods.

At that point, Kreutzkamp was simply mixing and matching his players over the final eight minutes of the match.

“I was really happy with the second group,” Kreutzkamp said. “The chemistry (on this team) is so good.”

David Edelman came up with a pair of goals in the final quarter for the Gators, while Serra closed out the scoring with a Tyler Krueger goal off Coffin assist with 10 seconds to play.

Despite the lopsided loss, Kates like where his team is. They Padres have been more than competitive against some good teams and if they play like they did Tuesday, Serra will win some games.

“[SHP is] strong, fast. They’re a good team,” Kates said. “(But) I think we’re one of the best teams in CCS.”