SOUTHERN SECTION WATER POLO ROUNDUP : Sunny Hills Wastes Lead, Still Beats Edison

Although it’s playoff time, the Sunny Hills water polo team apparently still is in the learning stage.

The Lancers (18-8) learned Wednesday that no lead is big enough against a good team. They nearly squandered a five-goal lead before holding off Edison, 8-6, in a first-round Southern Section Division II playoff match at Independence Park of Fullerton.

“We have to learn from this,” said Carlo Franzia, who scored three goals, sharing the team lead with David Farkas. “I don’t know what happened.”

What happened is Sunny Hills, which won its 23rd consecutive Freeway League title last week, put its offense away after taking a 7-2 first-half lead. Edison, the third-place finisher in the Sunset League, took advantage of the Lancers’ second-half tentativeness and slowly crept back.

The Chargers (11-11) scored once in the third quarter to make it 7-3, and then got a goal from Shawn Hayes early in the fourth quarter and two consecutive goals from Nate Flynn to make it a one-goal match with 2 minutes 24 seconds remaining. But the Chargers got a bit too aggressive in the final minute and a kick-out penalty led to a match-clinching, man-advantage goal by Sunny Hills’ Eric Hyon with 39 seconds left.

“Immaturity showed through,” Edison Coach Matt Whitmore said. “We just had no defense early.”

Sunny Hills had the opposite problem, but will advance to face Lompoc, a 22-9 winner over Agoura, in the second round Friday.