DOMINATING EFFORT-Above, Highlander senior driver Blake Hubbell extends himself out of the water at the Westlake High pool to get a shot past Warrior defender Ben Markowitz. Below, Royal's Tyler McClure looks for a passing lane during his team's 13-5 victory Tuesday. In its first league game of the season Tuesday afternoon at Westlake High, the Royal boys' water polo squad proved yet again why many opposing coaches view the Highlanders as the team to beat in the Marmonte League this year.

Led by a five-goal performance by senior driver Blake Hubbell and a suffocating defense that held a quality Warrior group to only a handful of goals, the Highlanders breezed to a 13-5 victory on the road.

"I thought we did alright," Hubbell said. "We played pretty good defense, but our offense was struggling a little bit. We were missing some shots, but Westlake is a pretty good team. It was a good opening game."

Scott Snyder, Hubbell and Tyler McClure all had firstquarter goals for the Highlanders, while Mike Lee added a pair of scores in the opening eight minutes to stake RHS to an early 5-1 lead.

Barry Snyder scored twice in the second quarter to help Royal push its lead to 7-2 at halftime.

Westlake's Brandon O'Kelly hammered home a shot with 1:39 remaining in the third quarter to cut the Highlanders' margin in half at 8-4.

But in the fourth quarter, with Royal's starting lineup back in the pool following an extended rest period, RHS managed to get five more goals past the Westlake defense to put the match far out of reach. Josh Cohen scored the Highlanders' last goal with less than two minutes on the game clock.

"I was pretty pleased with (the result)," Royal head coach Steve Snyder said. "We had moments where we really showed that we're a top-notch team. We're still developing our offense, so that sputtered a little bit at times. But overall I'm very happy with our defense at this point in time in the season."

Snyder, who's entering his 26th year at the helm of the school's water polo team and has won 21 Marmonte League titles during that span, said junior goalkeeper Stash Dabrowski showed a lot of poise in net.

"He has a tremendous work ethic," the coach said. "Obviously, it's difficult for him after being a junior varsity goalie last year and playing in the shadows of the Goalie of the Year in the Marmonte League, Matt Lewis, but he's done an admirable job.

"He's coming along, although he still makes some mistakes," Snyder said. "But we're pleased with where he is right now."

The Highlanders graduated several significant players from last year's team that advanced to the CIF-SS Division IV semifinals, including Lewis, Ben Cobb, Adam Thomas and Juan Camero.

Replacing those players' skill and leadership qualities won't be easy, but Snyder still believes his squad has the necessary parts in place to challenge for a CIF title in '06.

"This is a whole different team with a different personality," Snyder said. "But they've come right in and in some ways are better at certain things than last year's team was. These guys are doing fine.

"The chemistry is tremendous on this team," he said. "They like each other and spend a lot of time with each other."

Over the summer, Snyder and many of the Highlander players traveled to Europe, where they competed against club teams from several different countries, including Hungary.

"We gained a lot from that," Snyder said. "Hungary's the Mecca of the water polo world."

Hubbell said the trip was a terrific bonding experience for the guys, adding that going up against top European talent will only make all of them better players this season against local competition.

"We combined our club and high school teams to form an AllStar team," Hubbell said. "It was a good group and we had a lot of fun competing."

Because the CIF moved the Santa Barbara schools out of Division IV and into Division II this season, Snyder said he believes the division championship will be ripe for the picking come playoff

time, although the addition of the Bay League won't make winning a title too much easier, he said.

"One of the Santa Barbara schools has been in the finals every year since 1999," Snyder said. "So it really kind of opens things up. However, I feel with the Bay League, they're just installing another very good league."

Earlier this month, Agoura head coach Dustin Litvak said that while there are several strong teams in the Marmonte, the league championship will probably come down to Royal and Agoura. Snyder concurred.

"That's what everybody's saying, so I'd say there's probably some truth to that," Snyder said. "But on any given day, there are teams such as Thousand Oaks and Moorpark that can beat anyone."