Lezak’s Return Helps Irvine Edge El Toro

Irvine, playing most of the game without starting two-meter player Erin Lezak, staved off feisty El Toro and won a Sea View League girls’ water polo game, 5-4, Wednesday at El Toro High.

Lezak, the second-leading scorer for top-ranked Irvine, jammed her right middle finger in a game last weekend and did not enter the game until there were 48 seconds left in the third quarter.

But when she entered, her impact was almost immediate. She broke a 3-3 tie with a spin shot from two meters with 6:26 to play.

Alexis Hanson gave Irvine (9-1, 2-0 in league play) a 5-3 lead two minutes later on a six-on-five goal.

“I had been thinking about [putting Lezak in] the whole game,” Irvine Coach Scott Hinman said. “If this was a nonleague game, I wouldn’t have put her in.”

Nicole Huszcz, forced into two-meter duty in Lezak’s absence, scored twice in the first half as Irvine built a 3-1 lead. But No. 9 El Toro (10-4, 1-1) battled back in the third, getting goals from Kristin Miller and Amy Cessna to tie the score.

Cessna’s goal, with 48 seconds left in the third, prompted Hinman to get Lezak in the game.

“We couldn’t get anything going offensively,” he said. “This is the first time we’ve played without her. But she wanted to go and she gave me confidence that she could protect it.”

El Toro, which had to skip practice Tuesday because its pool was being serviced, capitalized on only one of five six-on-five advantages.

“I thought we could beat them if we held them under eight goals,” El Toro Coach Don Stoll said. “But our shooting was off. Maybe the missed practice had something to do with it.”