El Toro Wins Water Polo Playoff Opener

In El Toro’s last two important water polo games, leading scorer Trevor McMunn had trouble getting his game together.

“I was in a little bit of a slump, said McMunn, a junior two-meter man who scored only two goals--both on penalty shots--in Sea View League losses to Newport Harbor and Corona del Mar. The losses dropped El Toro into third place.

Thursday, McMunn regained his form, scoring three goals in the Chargers’ 8-3 victory over Capistrano Valley in the first round of the Southern Section Division I playoffs Thursday at Saddleback College.

“I just relaxed a little bit in there,” McMunn said, “and thought about taking better shots instead of just heaving it.”

McMunn, a three-year starter who has 85 goals this season, scored twice in the first half and the Chargers (21-7) took a 3-0 halftime lead. Capistrano Valley (12-15), which also lost 7-3 and 19-3 to El Toro this season, never got much going on offense.

The Cougars didn’t take their first shot until 34 seconds remained in the first quarter and scored their first goal with 5 minutes 44 seconds left in the third quarter on a shot by Matt Pietrantoni.

That made it 3-1, but El Toro’s Jeff Lloyd (two goals, five steals) scored a man-advantage goal a minute later and McMunn made it 5-1 with 1:17 left.

Capistrano Valley’s Jeff DeLeon scored at the third-quarter buzzer on a shot from the Cougars’ end of the pool. Capistrano Valley had a couple chances to get closer early in the fourth quarter but couldn’t convert and three consecutive El Toro goals in a one-minute span put the game away.

The Chargers advance to a second-round game against North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake on Tuesday at El Toro.