INLAND FIELDHOUSE

I covered the Corona Santiago-Riverside Poly girls water polo match on Thursday, Feb. 12 for the Riverside Press-Enterprise and came away thinking Poly sophomore goalie Jillian Yocum could play quarterback for the Bears — this fall.

Yocum, a goalie for the Under-17 U.S. National Team, ignited fast break after fast break for Poly with her pin-point passes to streaking teammates. So much so that if assists were tallied in water polo, Yocum would have finished with four. The girl has a serious arm, tossing the ball just ahead, or in several cases, into the arms of, teammates more than 20 yards away.

I honestly don’t think I saw more than a couple varsity QBs with as accurate an arm as Yocum. And, you have to keep in mind, she’s treading water the entire time — not on the run or being protected by hulking lineman.

In one instance in the first quarter, she made a lightning-quick save and then in one motion lobbed the ball into the wading arms of senior Jessica Cardey, who promptly scored at the other end. It was the quickest score I’ve ever seen in a water polo match, and I’ve been watching pool polo, both boys and girls, men and women, for more than a decade now.

And not only did Yocum ignite her team’s offense, she also made 14 crucial saves to stave off Santiago, which actually tried to make a game of it in the second half, outscoring Poly 4-3. If the Bears hadn’t jumped out to a 6-3 first-half lead, who knows what might have happened to their undefeated 8-0 league record.

Cardey, for her part, scored five times to lead Poly to a 9-7 victory and their third consecutive league title. She was a dynamo around the opposing goal, scoring twice on fast breaks started by Yocum, twice on hard shots from outside the 2-meter area and once more on a nifty behind-the-back toss that completely fooled Santiago’s goalie.

The match, which was featuring two 7-0 teams heading in, lived up to its billing as a league championship. Both teams played with intensity and had supportive crowds cheering them on. So supportive, in fact, that match referee Chris Belcher had to confront and then eject a Santiago fan after being repeatedly abused with nasty language. If was the most boisterous crowd for a water polo match I’ve seen this century.