La Habra sprints to wild-card win

La Habra coach Courtney Robertson seems to be enjoying her team's play. La Habra took on El Rancho in the wild card round of the CIF-SS Division 3 girls water polo playofs at Fullerton College on Tuesday. La Habra won 15-5.
La Habra's Rachel Henson, right, chases down a ball with El Rancho's Zurisadai Pulido.
La Habra's Veronica Ramirez looks for a teammate to pass to during her team's wild-card playoff victory over El Rancho of Pico Rivera Tuesday at Fullerton College.
La Habra's Angel Bautista winds up for a shot, guarded by El Rancho's Sierra Edwards. La Habra took on El Rancho in the wild card round of the CIF-SS Division 3 girls water polo playofs at Fullerton College on Tuesday. La Habra won 15-5.
La Habra's Veronica Ramirez, right, chases down a ball with El Rancho's Sierra Edwards. La Habra took on El Rancho in the wild card round of the CIF-SS Division 3 girls water polo playofs at Fullerton College on Tuesday. La Habra won 15-5.
La Habra's Kayla Peko, right, plays tough defense on El Rancho's Zurisadai Pulido.
El Rancho's Rosemary Valdez, right, battles La Habra's Kayla Peko. La Habra took on El Rancho in the wild card round of the CIF-SS Division 3 girls water polo playofs at Fullerton College on Tuesday. La Habra won 15-5.
La Habra's Breanna O'Dea pushes off of El Rancho's Sara Polanco. La Habra took on El Rancho in the wild card round of the CIF-SS Division 3 girls water polo playofs at Fullerton College on Tuesday. La Habra won 15-5.
La Habra's Kayla Peko, right, plays tough defense in front of the goal. La Habra took on El Rancho in the wild card round of the CIF-SS Division 3 girls water polo playofs at Fullerton College on Tuesday. La Habra won 15-5.
La Habra's Breanna O'Dea, right, chases down a ball in front of El Rancho's Sara Polanco in Tuesday's CIF-SS Division 3 wild-card playoff game. La Habra won, 15-5.

By Dan Albano | dalbano@scng.com | Orange County Register

February 17, 2015 at 10:35 p.m.

La Habra’s girls water polo team delivered a clinic Tuesday on some of the finer points of a high-octane counterattack.

And unfortunately for El Rancho of Pico Rivera, the Highlanders thoroughly covered the critical areas.

La Habra used its speed advantage, anticipation skills, clever positioning, aggressive defense and the outlet passing of goalie Maddi Garcia to sprint past El Rancho, 15-5, in a CIF-SS Division 3 wild-card playoff match at Fullerton College.

In advancing to today’s first-round match at fifth-seeded Santiago of Corona, the Highlanders (18-12) dominated the transition game en route to eight counterattack goals.

Natasha Veldez provided the first lessons, scoring three times on the counterattack in the opening period as La Habra took a 5-2 lead.

The Highlanders’ attackers on the perimeter anticipated well after steals or saves by Garcia, a junior who finished with 15 blocks.

Garcia also made several outlet passes that covered three-quarters the length of the course, finding teammates sprinting ahead of the defense for El Rancho (15-10). All five players who scored for La Habra netted at least one counterattack goal.

“That’s sort of what we’ve been looking for all season long – to push the counter,” said La Habra coach Courtney Robertson, whose team tied Sunny Hills for second behind Troy in the Freeway League.

“The counter really, truly goes off trust in (Garcia), knowing she is going to block it, knowing she can throw it. So without Maddi, it would be a little bit harder to get that counter.

“Every girl out there was countering.”

Veldez, a sophomore, scored all four of her goals on the counterattack and added three steals. Senior Breanna O’Dea provided a strong center presence en route to a game-high five goals but also netted one on a counterattack.

O’Dea, the niece of Corona del Mar boys coach Barry O’Dea, also scored twice on penalty shots, and Rachel Henson, Kayla Peko and Roni Ramirez each added two goals.

Also in Division 3:

Palos Verdes 13, Sunny Hills 9: Junior Kendall Smith scored five goals for the visiting Lancers, who scored six goals in the fourth period. Freshman Grace Whitehouse made 12 saves for Palos Verdes.

In other wild-card games:

In Division 1:

Edison 21, Costa Mesa 0: Sierra Page made eight saves for the Chargers (14-14), who play at Corona del Mar today.

In Division 4:

Laguna Hills 15, Claremont 4: Bailey Lloyd scored four goals and Tatum Stein made seven saves to lead the host Hawks (18-6), who play at No. 2 seed Riverside Poly on Thursday.

In Division 6:

Elsinore 24, Loara 5: Alanna Torres scored five goals for the visiting Saxons while Rachel Pennington netted 10 for Elsinore.

Mayfield 16, Pacifica 13: Caroline Thorn scored eight goals but the visiting Mariners fell to Mayfield and Kathryn McCullough (seven goals).

In Division 7:

La Quinta 6, Pomona Catholic 4: Freshman Lauren Jaffke scored twice and Scarlett Peters made nines saves to lead the visiting Aztecs (12-14), who play at top-seeded Hillcrest of Riverside on Thursday.

Contact the writer: dalbano@ocregister.com