All 3 teams were in action this weekend. The Varsity attended the Valley Polo Fest hosted at Valley Christian's beautiful campus and pool. It was a freezing weekend to say the least. Valley Christian's campus and pool are set alone atop hilltop in the middle of San Jose. The wind was cold and howling. The Varsity faced an extremely tough first opponent in Leland High School. We were blown out by Leland our first game of the season about 2 months ago. Although we lost, we fared much better and lost 12-6 and were competitive and in the game throughout. Saturday we faced our league rival Hollister. The boys came out flat in the 8am game. We started the game down 5-0! It was a disappointing start to say the least, but the boys battled back and by the start of the 4th quarter we trailed 6-5. Hollister, came out in the fourth quarter and capitalized off 4 quick turnovers and scored a few goals quickly. We couldn't catch up and lost that game 9-6. A game we should have won. With that loss we were again matched with our league nemesis, Stevenson. Stevenson was missing a few kids that day, but we took control of the game early and never looked back. 12-4 was the final score with almost each player on the roster scoring at least one goal. Ryan Ehlke was stellar in that game with 2 goals.
We continue to build, learn, work, focus, encourage each other, etc. I am confident our "peak" is coming in the next couple of weeks. It's a process. Rome wasn't built in a day.
Standouts were Jakub Kristl in the goal. (I don't have the stat book so I don't have the final stats), but he had a ton of saves and is showing some real confidence in the cage. You can feel the team's confidence in his abilities to block shots increasing as well. Zach Weston, Cole Stephan, Dane Maughan continue to focal points of our offense and defense. They have done a great job in being constantly active on both sides of the ball, scoring goals, taking the tough defensive assignments, constantly moving, etc. Fred Hertlein showed continued improvement on offense and defense and is becoming a valuable asset on the counterattack. Jay Lewis continues his scoring prowess and "nose for the ball" while scoring multiple goals this weekend. Nate Cohen and Shawn Marden were awesome coming off the bench each having multiple goals. Zach Olpin showed great poise in our game against RLS leading the counterattack on numerous drives scoring a goal and gaining a penalty shot.
We are encouraged by our growth, but are not satisfied. We have more room for improvement. With focus and hardwork these next few weeks a lot can be accomplished.
Coach Gaily
JV weekend synopsis by Coach Ed:
Another fine outing for the JV squads on Oct. 11, 2008. The "Red" squad lost the opening game to host Bellarmine Fr./Soph. by a score of 3-13. It was a wake up call at 8 a.m. the the "Bells had at least thirty players on their squad. The opponents scored on counter attacks, with cross passes , 2m step out & sweep shots, and man up opportunities. Better swimmers, skills, and knowledge made the difference. We shot poor angle shots outside the post when we needed to establish the hole set and drive off fouls. The second game was with Serra and we won the contest 22-4; with nine players scoring and six giving assists. We did a much better job of fronting 2m on defense and caused several turnovers which gave us counter attack opportunities. The last game for the "Red" squad was against a contentious Mt. View team. We trailed 2-4 after the first period but regained composure and played fine team defense in the second period, causing several TO's and scored eight unanswered points of our own. We finished that contest with a 16-6 win.
Ben Price has 45 saves in goal over the course of the better part of six games of playing for both "Red" and "Grey" squads! Awesome work. Joe Hamway had four saves during about four quarters of play and was only scored on by the Bellarmine team. Joe became a field player for much of the tournament and lead the "Red" in scoring with ten goals and three assists. Sean Pickert had nine goals, Ryan P. four, Brady H. four goals & six steals. Brady did an excellent job of 2m defense and caused several TO's by fronting and helping back (ie. no face guarding). Mike A. continues to improve in this area as well and Ryan M. noted that, "playing 2m D. is fun". Romi K. had three assists and scored against Bellarmine as well. Almost everyone had a score. Great team effort against Mt. View! We need to improve on 6 on 5 ( & 3/2 Def.) situations--quicker set up and passing, and continue to take too many low angle shots. Picks, cross drives, V-drive releases, and ball side drives will be featured during the reamaining practices.
The Grey squad beat Salinas 8-3 for the third time. They were beaten by Pioneer by an unknow score and lost to Gunn 1-9. Lucas Z. and Sam S. lead the scoring with four goals & two assists each. Chris B., Chris R., Emilio I., and Matt P. also tallied once each. Swimming capabilities, ball handling, positioning, and situational reactions will improve results with this group. They continue to learn by playing the game and are all new to the sport of water polo, except for Lucas. Matt J. won four sprints. Chris B. had three recorded saves in goal. Keep working hard and be the student of the game and the success will come......
Thanks for all the parents who have been travelling to these games! We love the support, love, food, and care you show all of us! A special thanks to coach, Graham Evans, for his dedicated work with our goalies! It is paying off in ways you might not expect.
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