Corso’s Team Drives Home a Point, 23-5 : High school water polo: After placing fifth in weekend tournament, Harvard-Westlake sinks outmanned St. John Bosco.

STUDIO CITY — Rich Corso can rest his case. The Harvard-Westlake High water polo coach’s claims that the Wolverines can compete on equal terms against any team in the state are unassailable.

Exhibit A: the Wolverines’ heady showing in last weekend’s John Felix State Invitational, where they finished fifth in the 16-team tournament against a field composed of California’s top teams.

Harvard-Westlake won three of its four games, losing only to top-ranked El Toro by one goal, and learned a valuable lesson:

“We can play with anyone,” Corso said. “At halftime of the El Toro game (tied, 4-4), I said, ‘You guys tell me, what does El Toro have? Yeah, they’re a good ballclub, but are they doing anything we haven’t seen before? Is every guy 6-foot-9, 230 pounds? Are they the U.S. Olympic team or the Italian Olympic team?’ ”

No. Case closed.

Still basking in the glow of that realization, Harvard-Westlake celebrated its recent performance--and its new No. 3 ranking in Southern Section Division I--by overwhelming St. John Bosco, 23-5, in a Mission League game Tuesday.

“We’re all feeling better about ourselves (after the tournament),” said Harvard-Westlake Jimmy Gotcher, who had five goals against St. John Bosco. “We hung with everybody and played well with all the big guys.”

In the tournament, the Wolverines defeated Long Beach Wilson (ranked fourth in Division I), Newport Harbor (No. 8) and traditional power San Jose Bellarmine.

Corso, in a show of magnanimity after the tournament, actually gave the players Monday morning off from training, “for the first time in about 15 years,” he joked.

The Wolverines must have sensed they were one practice session short. They used their game against the Braves (8-11, 3-7 in league play) as an opportunity to give playing time to most of their 28 team members and to work on some plays.

In the second quarter, during a Wolverine power play, Corso called a timeout to set up a play. The setup called for David Brende, stationed with the ball in the deep right corner, to make a cross-pool pass to Richard Won on the left wing. Won would then shoot.

They tried it, but Brende’s pass went over Won’s head, so Won retrieved it.

“Run it again,” Corso yelled.

Won threw it back to Brende, Brende hit Won with a perfect pass and Won drilled a shot into the net, just the way Corso drew it up.

The entire time, St. John Bosco defenders swam helplessly about.

Twelve players scored for the Wolverines (23-2, 10-0 in league play).

Dan Reeves scored three goals and Marc Lebovitz, Kirby Kim, Jim Duff, Albert Won and Jason Manning each scored twice.

Peter Kiefer and Bepe Khayatian alternated at goalkeeper. Kiefer had six saves and Khayatian added four.