This Wednesday at Palo Alto High School the varsity boys’ water polo team defeated the Mountain View Spartans 7-6.

The Spartans got off to just the start they were looking for, with Aaron Lim (’12) scoring the first goal of the night off of a five-meter shot.

The rest of the quarter seemed to be a stalemate of tight defense and tireless offense between the two teams until, with just 3:59 left on the clock, Viking’s Will Connor (’14) countered with a goal of his own to even the score.

For the next three minutes the two teams exchanged shots, but no goals were scored until Nelson Perla-Ward (’15) found the back of the cage with just 53 seconds left in the quarter.

The Spartans roared into the third quarter with Lim scoring another goal off of a two-meter shot to make the game 2-2.

Connor responded with an attempt that nearly gave the Vikings a 3-2 advantage, but was denied by the post. Ward, however, would not be robbed of his second goal, and with 3:29 left in the second quarter, he scored to give the Vikings a 3-2 lead.

But the back and forth play continued, and the Spartans quickly found a counter led by Michael Magee (’13) to close out the half.

Mountain View started just where they left off and Magee put away another goal to give Mountain View a 4-3 lead. Paly for the the first time did not respond immediately and Lim quickly put away another goal, 5-3 Mountain View.

Lim had three goals on the night.

“Our offense didn’t run the plays we wanted, we didn’t play bad, they just played better than us, ” Lim said.

Connor took control to close up the gap, and with a quick drive followed by a shot making the score 4-5.  Peter Rockhold (’12) kept the momentum up, finding the net with just 23 seconds left in the third. The score at the end of the quarter was tied once more 5-5.

More of the same in the fourth quarter had Connor finding the back of the net for the fourth time that night,while Spartans’ Russel Blockhus (’13) added a goal of his own. With just over a minute left on the clock, Connor found himself in a scoring position after earning a five-meter penalty, and after blowing Spartan goalie, Oleg Kaujikov (’12) a kiss, hammered the ball into the back of the net.

“I knew he (Kaujikov) was trying to fake me out because I saw his legs and so I tried to fake him out by blowing him a kiss,” Connor said.

For the next minute, the Spartans attacked the Viking defense, but with no success. Paly held on to the one goal lead to beat the Spartans 7-6 and move to 2-0 record in league play.

After the game, Connor was satisfied with his team’s performance, but felt there were areas they could have improved in.

“I thought we could have played together better, but in the end, we pulled it together and got a win,” Connor said.

Mountain View head coach Gabor Sarusi acknowledged felt that although the game was a close one, the Vikings played the stronger game to secure the victory.

“They were going hard the whole time-they converted the ones we weren’t able to convert,” Sarusi said. “I knew they were going to be good- they are the team to beat this year.”