Falcon Water Polo brought home solid results from their tournament in Irvine over the weekend, beating Westlake by a goal on Friday before dropping three games to take 8th place overall.
37:32... The highlight of the tournament came in a quadruple overtime thriller against cross-town competition La Jolla Vikings. After being down 2-4 at the half and 3-8 in the third quarter, Senior Santi Gonzalez '24 and Junior Jack Mason '25 combined for five unanswered goals to force overtime. Gonzalez added the first goal in regular overtime (two three-minute periods) and tied it again with 24 seconds remaining in OT2 to force sudden death. After Junior Brixton Miller '25 parried a second (!) penalty to keep the score tied, the initial sudden death period ended with no score. Yet the Vikings finally found the net to claim victory 32 seconds into the fourth overtime in a game that lasted 37 minutes and 32 seconds. Needless to say, the Falcons were disappointed to lose but heartened to have played their best polo of the season against a very experienced team. Overall results for the tournament: Goals: Gonzalez, 17; Mason, 7. Assists: Darko Dresevic '26, 6; Mason, 5. Steals: Mason, 13; Julian Breeze '27, 9; Gonzalez, 8. Ejections Earned: Mason, 3; Breeze, 3. Falcons water polo opened league play against their hosts Mount Carmel and came away with a 13-7 victory for Varsity and a 13-4 win for the Junior Varsity. The boys played unified ball, communicated well, covered their matchups well, and kept a strong MCHS team in check. Junior Jack Mason '25 and Senior Santi Gonzalez '24 combined for 8 of the teams total goals, with James Halpern '26 (2 goals), Ryan Yang '26 (2 goals), and Hayden Sykes '25 (1 goal) rounding out scoring. Freshman Julian Breeze '27 picked up four of the team's total five exclusions. On the defensive side of the ball, Sykes (5), Gonzalez (5) and Breeze (3) combined for 12 steals. Junior Brixton Miller '25 contributed eight saves in the cage.
After the strong win against MC, Falcon water polo traveled to Westview HS to play against San Pasqual later in the week. Nine players put balls past the Eagles' keeper en route to a 13-4 victory. Coach Brandon Carmon switched up the playing orders a bit to play all upper classmen as a group with the underclassmen as a distinct unit. This was a great opportunity to see contributions from Seniors Oren Diamond (2 goals), John Hodgkinson (2 assists), and Waylon Hollingsworth (1 goal, 2 assists). Gonzalez led the team in goals (3) and steals (5). |
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October 2023
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