The Cupertino Courier

Sports

Cupertino heads El Camino Division polo field

By MIKE BARNHART

After not winning a single game in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League last season, the Cupertino boys water polo team got the word that it would move down to the El Camino Division in 2006.

This fall Cupertino has reversed its fortunes, not losing a single El Camino contest thus far and staying a step ahead of Lynbrook in the race for the division crown and a berth in the Central Coast Section playoffs.

Led by seniors Derrik Jarvis and Tim Lordan, both all-De Anza Division selections a year ago, along with four other returning lettermen, Cupertino is stronger and more skilled than the squad that won just nine of 30 games in 2005. Heading into an Oct. 17 showdown with Lynbrook, coach Mike West's Pioneers had flexed their muscles for nine El Camino wins without a loss and an overall record of 17-4.

Seeking its first league championship since winning the El Camino title five seasons ago, Cupertino entered Tuesday night's match-up needing a win over Patrick Ellington's Vikings (8-1,15-5) to secure the top seed in the division playoffs, Nov. 2-4 at Lynbrook.

As he has done for much of the season, Jarvis topped all scorers during the Pioneers' two El Camino victories last week. First, in a 12-4 win against visiting Santa Clara, Jarvis tallied five goals. Two days later, the talented utility player broke free for seven in a 15-4 triumph at Homestead. Back in September, Jarvis had six goals in Cupertino's first confrontation with Lynbrook, a 9-2 decision.

The Pioneers jumped out to comfortable halftime leads in both contests last week. They led 8-1 after two quarters with Santa Clara and 12-0 against Homestead, removing much of the tension from the goaltending job for sophomore Ryan Jarvis, Derrik's brother.

Joining D. Jarvis in the scoring column at Homestead were Lordan (two) and the team's four other lettermen, junior driver Johnway Yih (two) and seniors Todd Bodene, Yulian Kuncheff and Kayvon Ghaffari. Junior Ryan Ikeda's goal rounded out the scoring.

Ikeda tallied twice against Santa Clara. Junior Devin McGhie, Yih, Ghaffari, Bodene and R. Jarvis chipped in with a goal each. Other team members are Jeffrey Huang, Stephen Fisher and Russell Preston.

Homestead, coming off a tough 11-10 defeat at Lynbrook, managed just two goals in each of the last two periods against visiting Cupertino. Geovid Kali, Alex Romanko, Collin Russum and Brian Armstrong chipped in one goal each for the Mustangs.

Kali's four goals shared game-high honors with Lynbrook seniors Brandt Robinson and Terry Jiang. Armstrong added three for Homestead, which trailed just 5-4 at halftime. The Vikings stretched the lead to 8-4 in the third period, then survived Homestead's six-goal uprising in the fourth with another trio of scores.

Robinson's four goals topped all scorers during Lynbrook's 16-3 win over Harker. Jiang popped in three goals.