His squad, which brought a 64-game win streak into the quarterfinal matchup, didn't find things easy early against Edison.
"To tell you the truth, we were a little nervous coming into this game," he said. "We were playing against the hottest team in the division. Edison was playing really good water polo and we were a bit concerned. I think that showed early. We weren't getting the plays we wanted but started to execute in the second quarter. That allowed us to take control of the game."
Edison, the No. 8 seed, was playing its third game in four games. The Chargers, who finished third behind Los Alamitos and No. 4-seeded Newport Harbor in the Sunset League, had to beat Northwood in a wild-card game Tuesday to earn a first-round game. They did just that, winning, 15-6, then went to Mira Costa Wednesday and scored a 13-6 win over the Mustangs.
The Chargers were confident coming into Friday's quarterfinal game.
"We felt we could play with them, and we did," Edison Coach Diggy Riley said. "We had one day to prepare for them, literally, and that's a tough thing to do when you play a talented team like that. But coming into this, we weren't really afraid of them.
"I thought we did a great job in the second half where we outscored them. We were right there in the first quarter and early in the second quarter but Dos Pueblos presses so well in the lanes and that leads to turnovers. We made some mistakes in the second quarter and they, unfortunately, cost us."
