5th-8th place will feature Newport, Mission, Vanguard, and Palos Verdes. Would not want to run into any of these teams early at SuperFinals yet someone inevitably will.
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With wins over SD Dons and La Jolla today, Patriot will be the #1 seed out of socal at SuperFinals for 14u.
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Congratulations to Coach Miles. He’s done a fantastic job over the course of the season at Patriot.
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This age group continues to reshuffle every weekend and dozens of one-goal games have been the deciders for the past month or so. Patriot with two one-goal wins this weekend rises to the top. Mission over Newport in a one-goal win yesterday (Mission and Newport each missing a key starter due to injury). LA Premier has had some big wins recently and appears to be on the rise.
Easy to name 6-7 teams who could make a deep run at the big tournaments this summer… La Jolla, Patriot, Mission, Newport, LA Premier, Dons, Norcal… Everyone seems to want a clear favorite to emerge, but I think it’s going to remain too close to call until it all plays out and then various factors will come into play (seeding/pathway, health/injury, coaching, officiating, and good ol’ fashion luck) to determine the champs at SuperFinals and JO’s. This is the most parity we’ve seen in this age group in a long time.
5 Likes
If Quals finish as the games did today, the way-too-early projections would give Patriot the easiest path.
Using the following bracket:
We’d get Day #2 Round Robin groups of:
pt_M
A - LA Premier
H - Norcal
I - Newport
pt_N
B - Greenwich
G - SD Dons
J - Pegasus
pt_O
C - Patriot
F - CST2/SPA4
K - 3rd PAC
pt_P
D - La Jolla United
E - Mission
L - CST3/PAC4
That first place SPA slot, which maps to the pt_O group, looks like a huge prize this year.
5 Likes
Top 20 14u Boys Water Polo Teams
week #40 – eight weeks to JOs
#1 La Jolla United – This is the top 14u team going into Quals, but Patriot showed in Futures week #5 that even this team is not unbeatable.
#2 LA Premier – Had a great Sailor’s Cup where they beat Patriot and SD Dons after having recently lost to both teams. This lefty-heavy team is peaking at the right time.
#3 NORCAL– Came up short by one to Premier, beat Mission by one, and played Newport to a tie where they advanced on a statistical tiebreaker.
#4 Newport – Finished second at Patriot Games and their only loss at Futures has been to top ranked LJU. That includes shootout wins over Mission and Vanguard.
#5 Mission – One point loss to NORCAL and LJU at SD County Cup. One point loss to Newport at Sailors.
#6 Vanguard – Two-point loss to Mission and a three-point win over Patriot at Sailor’s Cup. SPA Quals is going to be insane.
#7 Patriot – Has recent wins over both LA Premier and La Jolla United but suffered back-to-back-to-back Sailor’s Sunday losses to Premier, Newport, and Vanguard.
#8 Diablo Alliance – Placed first at Northern California Futures but only seem to play in Northern California. Offensively, they have a physical center and combine that with multiple lefties. They cause the same problems that LA Premier does. I’m ranking them this low only because of questions over how prepared they are for the Orange County style of game.
#9 Palos Verdes – Posted an impressive shootout win over Vanguard at week #5 of Futures, but dropped games to CDM and Shore Aquatics at Sailor’s.
#10 Lamorinda – Beat NORCAL and took Diablo to a shootout in the final week of Futures, but did not look dominant versus Southern California teams other than a notable win over the Dons at SD County Cup.
#11 Channel Islands United – Moving up after beating SD Shores in both Futures week #5 and Sailor’s.
#12 SD Dons – Had a nice win over Newport at SD County Cup but one of their reliable scorers transferred to Mission the following week.
#13 San Diego Shores – Came out on top versus 908 WPC and North Irvine at Sailor’s Cup.
#14 Greenwich – Pulled out a nice two-point win over a respectable 908 squad at SD County Cup.
#15 908 WPC – Racked up wins over CDM and North Irvine at SD County Cup.
#16 CDM – Crushed Commerce and came out with a shocking win over PV at Sailor’s Cup, but earlier this year I watched CDM lose to the SD Dons 13u team. I do not know what to make of CDM this season.
#17 OCWPC – This team has a center.
#18 Commerce – This team lives and dies by the counter-attack. They used it to get a nice win over Patriot and Greenwich but found the limitations versus OCWPC at SD County Cup.
#19 North Irvine – Beat Lamorinda at SD County Cup and I don’t know what to do with that information.
#20 South Coast – There are a number of teams who could make a claim to this spot, but none can match the media footprint of South Coast. They post all of their games, both A team and B team, with commentary, and pre-game banter.
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NorCal is trying to hide but Marco won’t let them.
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Does anyone know when the SOPAC schedule come out?
You have asked this in three separate threads. Someone will answer. Sorry, now 4 threads. Chill out.
I don’t think the seeding meeting is until this Thursday, 5/28.
On behalf of the South Coast Media Team, thank you for the call out. You did forget the halftime report, post game wrap up, Spanish commentary, and game highlights … which clearly should bump us to number 18 on the list!! LOL
More seriously, we are just parents supporting parents and family that can’t make the games so they can watch their kids and grandkids play. Thank you for the call out, it is much appreciated. We love our teams!!
12 Likes
Update from SOPAC 14u Boys JO Qualifiers:
- Mission (10-6 win over Newport in final; 11-4 win over Vanguard in semi)
- Newport (9-5 win over Patriot in semi)
- Patriot (8-6 win over Vanguard in 3rd place game)
- Vanguard
- North Irvine
- San Clemente
- CDM
- OCWPC
6 Likes
A lot of good games this weekend. I heard something happened in the CST 3rd place game. Does anybody know anything?
Rematch of CST JO quals OVAC V LA PREMIER 3rd place game today at Beckman
La Jolla/Newport/LA Premier tomorrow. Three of the top 5 teams in 14u battling on day 2.
Tomorrow 14u is going to be a battle, just preview how Saturday is going to be.
Final JO standings!
- CIU (repeat champs!)
- La Jolla
- Newport
- Dons
- Mission
- NorCal
- Patriot
- LA Premier
In a year where many wanted a clear favorite to emerge, any and all of these 8 teams showed at various points throughout the season that they could’ve taken the title. Lots of medals won by these teams along the way and the final title goes to CIU. Not sure we’ve seen this much parity in this age group in a very long time. All 3 SoCal zones were well represented and this was definitely a “down year” for Northern California teams outside of NorCal, who was notably the only 14u team with a player missing due to cadet worlds. Some great individual performances by athletes on all of these teams who will be fun to follow into the 16u age group. Congrats to all!
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My pre-season top spot for 14u would probably go to Newport. I think Mission will also be strong with the kids they are returning. CCU has a center who is a nightmare for defenses, and is in the mix. It will be an interesting season.
4 Likes
NorCal should have the following teams in the mix
CCU, Stanford and Lamo. Maybe 680. NorCal and Diablo lose 90% of their teams to 16U/HS.
CCU and Stanford had strong 14U B Teams. Stanford’s entire 14 B JO team were 13’s