IRVINE — Huntington Beach’s boys water polo team and James Rozolis-Hill made the most of their opportunities Saturday night at the S & R Sport tournament.
The Oilers followed the lead of their senior who missed the spring season due to the pandemic to bounce back from a self-described humbling fourth-place finish at the South Coast Tournament.
Rozolis-Hill scored five goals and recorded two of Huntington Beach’s eight field blocks en route to a 9-6 victory against improving Foothill in the finals at the Woollett Aquatics Center.
In defending their tournament title, the Oilers improved to 15-2 but more importantly made strides defensively, an area that hurt them in losing the third-place match to Sacred Heart Prep at the South Coast.
Huntington Beach plays Surf League rival Newport Harbor on Wednesday.
“After the South Coast, we were pretty (upset),” Rozolis-Hilll said. “Team defense, that’s what we needed to focus on. Covering for each other. Getting field blocks, and at the end of the day, being explosive in the zone (defense).”
Huntington Beach’s Nikola Mirkovic and Ryder Dodd also had two field blocks apiece to support goalie Gabriel Haddad, who had 11 saves and two steals.
Dodd, an impressive sophomore, guarded 2 meters without taking an exclusion, utilizing his strong positioning and swimming.
Huntington Beach blanked Foothill (10-5) in the fourth period and didn’t allow a goal for the final eight minutes and 32 seconds.
Rozolis-Hill scored twice in the Oilers’ key 4-0 run that began late in the second quarter and opened a 7-5 lead with 2:15 left in the third.
The 6-foot-5 center and Harvard commit didn’t play in the coronavirus-shortened spring season because he has two family members who have autoimmune challenges. Rozolis-Hill returned to play for Vanguard in June, helping the club take a silver at the Junior Olympics.
“It was difficult,” Rozolis-Hill said of not playing his junior season. “I had a good support system luckily to kind of help me through everything and then the training helped me but it did get tough a couple months.
“But luckily school was going well. My family was doing well, and that’s the important thing – just my family staying healthy.”
Jack Matos and emerging junior Bronson Birdsall each scored twice for Foothill while junior goalie Riley Clansen added six saves.
Both teams defended the power-play well. Each side finished 3 for 8.
“We’re making progress,” said Foothill coach Jim Brumm, whose team placed 12th at the South Coast Tournament.
In the third-place match:
De La Salle 17, Los Alamitos 16 (OT): Caleb Francisco scored seven goals in the loss for the Griffins.
More coverage to come
This post first appeared on ocregister.com
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