Merced, Atwater boys both earn blowout water polo victories in playoff openers
Merced High senior Easton Hamm quickly caught the attention of the Johansen water polo players.
After watching Hamm quickly score three goals in less than 4 minutes of the first quarter, Vikings player Nathan Cheney told his teammates and coaches during the break between quarters, “Their No. 9 (Hamm) is quite good.”
Hamm, who has verbally committed to Cal-Berkeley, finished with seven goals despite playing less than 8 minutes as the No. 6 seeded Bears rolled past No. 11 Johansen 21-7 in the first round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II playoffs at Golden Valley High on Wednesday afternoon.
The Bears (17-10) blitzed the Vikings early, jumping out to an 8-0 lead in the first quarter.
Johansen had no answer for the Merced pressure. The Vikings struggled advancing the ball up the pool and did manage a shot on goal until the final minute of the first quarter.
“It’s hard when Easton can just beat everyone out there,” said Merced coach Kit Grattan. “I felt our composure was good. We tried to work on things.”
Grattan pulled his starters midway through the first quarter and they played only sparingly the rest of the way.
Noah Ruffalo added three goals for Merced. Blake Slocum, Colin Krieger, Matthew King and Kenneth Bettelyoun all added two goals each for the Bears.
“Our press was good and that’s something we wanted to do,” Grattan said. “If we can maintain that pressure against a high level team we’ve got a chance.”
The Bears advance to a quarterfinal matchup against No. 3 seed Lodi on Friday. The game will be played at Tokay High at 4:30 p.m.
Merced hasn’t played Lodi this year, but Grattan saw the Flames play at a tournament recently.
“We saw them play at the DeLong tournament against Clovis East,” Grattan said. “Lodi looked really good, but I think we can match up with them.”
Atwater 11, Grace Davis 4
The Falcons jumped out to a 5-0 lead by the end of the first quarter as they knocked off the No. 8 seeded Spartans in the first round of the Division II playoffs.
Kaleb Rogers led the way for No. 8 Atwater with five goals. Lucas Avila added three goals and Trevor Knapp scored two goals.
Knapp finished the game despite dislocating his finger in the second quarter.
“He went to swim and cup his hand and his finger didn’t move,” said Atwater coach David Svendsen. “His finger was bent 90 degrees the wrong way.”
Knapp popped the finger back into place himself and declared himself ready to play.
“He showed me he could bend his fingers back and forth and he said he was good to go,” Svendsen said. “I’ve never seen anything like it before in a high school game. He’s a gamer.”
The Falcons will advance to play top-seeded Ponderosa on Friday at 3:30 p.m.
