CLAREMONT — Webb boys water polo coach Sawyer Belville stresses defense for her team and that was on full display in the second half Wednesday.
The Gauls held Hemet to just two goals over the final 17 minutes, 23 seconds and rallied for an 11-7 victory in a CIF Southern Section Division 5 quarterfinal match at The Webb Schools.
Webb (20-10) advances to play at Warren in the semifinals Tuesday.
“I did expect us to get past the first round this year,” said Belville, who is in her third season leading the program. “I did not think semifinals. They’ve been stepping into the challenge every single time. It’s 100 percent them.”
The first half was back-and-forth with Evan Marshall’s third of three goals with 3:23 to play in the first half giving Hemet a 5-4 halftime lead. But the Bulldogs did not score again for the next 12:34.
“I usually do my research,” Belville said. “I’m able to tell who’s the threat (to score) and who is not. The boys respond super, super well to that information. I think in this game it just took a minute for all of us to see, it’s obviously 12 (Marshall, who is the threat).”
Meanwhile, Webb’s top scorers Wednesday were not shut down in the second half.
Jonathan Lee, a sophomore transfer who played junior varsity water polo at Claremont last year, scored four of his game-high five goals in the second half, including the tying and go-ahead goals in the third quarter.
Webb took a 7-5 lead into the fourth quarter and Hemet could get no closer than 7-6 on Dean Fredricksen’s power play goal with 4:49 to play. Webb answered back with two goals in the next 1:32, putting the Bulldogs in desperation mode.
In addition to Lee, Albert Taylor scored three of his four goals in the second half for Webb.
Hemet coach Travis Henderson felt his team didn’t match Webb’s defensive intensity in the second half.
“They (Gauls) played really good defense. They made it difficult for us to get any clean shots off,” Henderson said. “We weren’t able to get anywhere inside. They took away our center pretty well. Our guy on the wing, they played him well. They played better defense than us.
“We needed to not give up so many easy shots. That third quarter, we shot ourselves in the foot by giving up easy shots. We’re young; we’ve got a lot of sophomores. All season long, we’ve had moments of fuzziness; just kind of, ‘what’s going on? Where are we?’’’
Henderson said the team was also missing one of its best players, who was suspended by CIF for three games due to an incident in the regular-season finale, but declined to give further details.
Despite the loss, Henderson feels there’s plenty his team can learn from Wednesday’s game.
“I want them to take what this looks like, to win and go on to the semifinals,” he said. “That should be the motivator. We need to be a faster team, we need to be a stronger team, we need to be a better shooting team, we need to be a smarter team on defense.”
