Three OC boys water polo teams earn top seeds in CIF playoffs

HB first in open division; Crean Lutheran and Portola make first appearances in post-season.

Three Orange County high school boys water polo teams are seeded first in their divisions in the CIF playoff brackets released Saturday.

Huntington Beach is seeded first in the new open division, Servite is seeded first in Division 2 and Crean Lutheran, making its first appearance in the playoffs, is first in Division 6.

The open division bracket also includes No. 2 Mater Dei and No. 3 Newport Harbor. Los Alamitos is second in Division 1.

The top four teams in Division 2 are from Orange County. After Servite, San Juan Hills, Yorba Linda and Aliso Niguel round out the top four.

Portola, making its first appearance in the playoffs, is seeded fourth in Division 4. Portola was seeded first for a large part of the season.

Ocean View is third and Westminster fourth in Division 6.

The playoffs will include 150 teams in seven divisions, according to CIF officials.

First round matches are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday depending on the division. The finals will be held on Saturday, Nov. 13 at the William Woollett Aquatics Complex in Irvine.

Crean Lutheran, led by first-year Coach Ed Carrera, will be on the road for its Division 6 opener Tuesday at 5 p.m. at Hilcrest. The top-seeded Saints are on the road because they’re an at-large team from the Empire League. Crean Lutheran enters with a 17-7 overall record after finishing 2-3 in the league.

“I’m extremely happy for these boys and just for the sport in general,” Carrera said. “It’s so awesome to have the CIF playoffs back. Best time of the year.

“Tate Fitzgerald, the DiPinto brothers (Mark and Jonathan) and our goalie Austin Griffin, a senior, will be leading the way for us.”  

The Pacific Coast League will also be well represented with four teams in the playoffs.

Beckman, the league’s No. 2 representative, is in Division 1 and will play at Palos Verdes Wednesday.

University, the PCL champion, is in Division 2 and will host Capistrano Valley Tuesday at 5 p.m. University enters the playoffs with a 21-5 record. Irvine, the number three team from the league, is also in Division 2 and will play at Santiago Corona Tuesday.

Coach Kyle Kim-E’s Northwood squad also reached the Division 1 playoffs and will play a wild card match Tuesday at 5 p.m. at Redondo Union.

“We knew this year was going to be a rebuild year, but I’m proud of the guys because I think we did better than expected,” Kim-E said. “Qualifying for the D1 playoffs was a good accomplishment for this squad and we have a significant number of returners for next year. So, this playoff experience will be good for our younger guys.” 

The Timberwolves are led by Michael Abshier, who has scored 100 goals this season and has been one of our biggest contributors on both offense and defense,” Kim-E said.

“Even though he’s younger and less experienced than some of our other players, we rely on him a lot. He handles the pressure well though and I’m proud of his efforts this season.” 

“Junior Iacopo Cagnoni is only in his second season with us and since last year wasn’t really a true season (it was short because of COVID), he has made a lot of improvements this year. He had to learn a new system with a bunch of new guys and he has really stepped up big for us this year.

“Senior Danny Kim is our main defensive guy, but he also plays an important role on offense. He’s the only returning player from our entire varsity or JV team pre-COVID. So, it was nice having someone familiar with our expectations and also of how we train/compete etc.”

To see the brackets for every division from the CIF, click here

—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com