Santa Fe High’s dream season presses on
Santa Fe’s Nathan Salcedo (5) scores a goal against Whitney in the first round of the CIF Water Polo Division 6 playoffs at the Cerritos Swim Center on Tuesday. Santa Fe defeated Whitney 10-6. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)
CERRITOS – The dream season continues for the Santa Fe High School boys water polo team, as they won a CIF-Southern Section Division 6 first-round playoff game Tuesday over host Whitney, 10-6, at the Cerritos Swim Center.
With the win, Santa Fe moves on to the second round and will face Heritage of Menifee Thursday (Nov. 4). Results were unavailable at press time.
The Patriots, who had a first-round bye, are 13-7 and won the Sunbelt league and have averaged 12 goals per game this season.
If Santa Fe (20-9) advances to the quarterfinals on Saturday, they will be at Lakewood (14-11) or host San Bernardino (5-8).
“I’m so proud of the team and Jacob [Correa],” Santa Fe Athletic Director Steve Hendry said. “They were recognized by ASB on campus [Wednesday] morning during break. It was fantastic to hear the cheers from the entire student body for them. Looking forward to (Thursday’s game).”
After qualifying for the first post season appearance in over 30 years, the Chiefs have now made even more history with their first win in CIF in ages.
And, what a game it was.
“Our strengths were teamwork,” Santa Fe coach Jacob Correa said. “We worked the ball around and didn’t have any bad possessions. That was the one thing that helped them out a lot and they moved the ball around well and their defense was always great.”
Senior set Nathan Salcedo led the team with three goals, followed by a pair of goals from senior attacker Eric Lopez, senior utility Max Rivas and junior attacker Raymond Arroyo. Senior attacker Joshua Lara had the other goal.
Scoring for Whitney (8-8) with two goals each was Andy Wang and Ethan Woolley, while Sid Watwani and Stein Bang had one each.
Whitney goalie, Anthony Tam, had 21 shots taken at him by the Santa Fe offense.
The Chiefs started fast with three goals on 10 shots in the first period, while Whitney didn’t get on the board.
With 2:10 left in the first period, Rivas opened the scoring to lead, 1-0, with the first of his two goals.
In the last minute of the period, Santa Fe scored twice on goals by Lara at :43 and Salcedo with just nine seconds left for the 3-0 lead.
The teams played even in the second quarter, scoring two goals each. Whitney broke into the scoring column three minutes into the second as Wang scored to trail, 3-1. Just 19 seconds later, Rivas scored his second goal and the Chiefs were back to their three-goal lead, 4-1.
Woollery cut into the Santa Fe lead for Whitney with a goal, but Rivas answered with another goal and the Chiefs took a 5-2 advantage into halftime.
Santa Fe stretched the lead to four goals, 6-2, at the 5:05 mark of the third period with a penalty shot by Salcedo. The goal was the third of the game for Salcedo.
With just over a minute left in the period, a flurry of three goals were scored, two of which came from the Chiefs.
Arroyo made it, 7-2, followed by a Whitney score by Bang, but with just 20 seconds left in the period, another late goal by Santa Fe (Eric Lopez) gave the Chiefs a five-goal, 8-3, lead heading into the final period.
Lopez was constantly double-teamed throughout the game, but he worked through it, scoring twice.
“Getting double-teamed on, it’s kind of a compliment, but it’s also a curse,” Lopez said. “It just sucks. As long as you go to the challenge and you overcome it and score a goal, it feels amazing.”
Santa Fe’s Max Rivas (11) shoots to score a goal while under pressure from a Whitney defender in the first round of the CIF Water Polo Division 6 playoffs at the Cerritos Swim Center on Tuesday. Santa Fe defeated Whitney 10-6. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)
Whitney upgraded its defense in the fourth period, sometimes double and triple teaming the Santa Fe players and scored more in that period than in the previous three periods.
Wang and Woollery started the scoring for Whitney with two goals in 26 seconds, to cut the lead to, 8-5.
Arroyo answered with a score just 10 seconds later for the 9-5 lead with 4:35 left.
Watwani scored his only goal of the game and the last goal for the Wildcats 21 seconds later.
Lopez closed out the scoring for Santa Fe with his second goal of the game with 2:33 left in the game for the 10-6 lead.
“It wasn’t our best game and we have a lot to work on,” Salcedo said. “It was brutal competition that we’re playing in. It was hard because we weren’t communicating that much.
“The first time in CIF is very exciting and to do it with the people I’ve been playing with for four years, It’s just crazy. Because, it started off as a joke and then now we put our minds to it and said, ‘we can actually do this.’ We did it and we’re so happy that we did (win).
In goal, after missing the last two regular-season games, was junior goalie Victor Quintero with six saves.
Correa, even though his team won the game, knew there was still room for improvement.
“It wasn’t their best game, I’ll be honest, but they played their hearts out,” Correa said. “They didn’t leave it in the refs hand. They played their game and they did well.
“It feels good to take a team like this. Myself, being a player there (Santa Fe), that’s something that we always wanted (CIF game). To be able to come do this as a coach and to be able to teach them to get to this level, it’s worth it in the end.”
Asked if he saw it in the beginning of the season, the talent that the team had, Correa said, “Yeah, 100%, they had it in them, they just had to work to get it out themselves.
“From the beginning, they doubted themselves, but with practice and repetition they were able to get it done.”
What they said:
Eric Lopez, senior utility: “It (the game) was tough, but we came out with the “W”. I’m excited, the whole team is excited.
“This is amazing how far we came from my freshman year. In my freshman year, the senior team barely could win two games. Right now, we already won our CIF first round game. It’s exhilarating.
“We’re improving our sport for our school. Back in my freshman year they cut the program. Coach Correa took over the program. He called us his babies and he taught us the ropes and now here we are coming out on top in the first round of CIF.”
Raymond Arroyo, junior attacker: “I woke up very excited for our first CIF game in over 30 years. You gotta get going, go to school then time for the game and we knew it was going to be a tough game.
“They hit us very hard in that fourth quarter and we didn’t expect that. I give props to Whitney. It was a good game though.”