Hearts and chocolate were immaterial to the girls in the red swimsuits Thursday afternoon.

"Forget boys," said junior Morgan McCardell, jokingly. "They don't matter."

The Rio Mesa High girls' water polo team has more important things to chase, like history.

Senior Alicia Begin scored eight goals and sophomore Jenny Jameson added four goals and two assists as the Spartans turned the second round of the CIF-Southern Section Division IV playoffs into a Valentine's Day massacre with a 17-2 win over St. Joseph of Santa Maria.

The Spartans (24-7), the Pacific View League champions and the tournament's No. 4 seed, move on to the quarterfinals for the third straight year on Saturday against Crescenta Valley.

"We're looking at this next game a little differently," said Rio Mesa coach Keith McKnett, whose team fell 10-9 to Glendale at the quarterfinal stage a year ago.

No PVL team has ever reached a CIF semifinal, which is something these Spartans are desperate to change.

"We want it," cheered the team in unison. "So bad."

Just how focused they were entering the game was a point of some contention, or at least nervousness. Before her fourth period English class Thursday, McKnett told Begin that he was worried the team was overconfident.

"I started freaking out," said the star senior, who has received scholarship offers from Indiana and UC Davis and is being recruited by Brown and Stanford.

So Begin lived up to her name by scoring in the first minute of three of the game's four quarters. Her teammates followed her lead.

"We found the right balance of nerves and confidence," said Begin, who has scored 107 goals this season.

Begin and junior Liz Branch scored two goals apiece as Rio Mesa built a 5-0 lead after one quarter.

It was 6-0 Spartans when Chelsey Gillespie scored St. Joseph's opening goal with 5:02 left in the first half.

The lead was 8-1 at the half and Begin scored three times in both the third and fourth quarters to open up the gulf.

McCardell had two goals, four assists and three steals. Branch finished with three goals, three assists and five steals. Jameson scored once in all four quarters. Senior Shawna Widmer added three assists and three steals.

"We clicked today," said McCardell. "This is our time."