The Paly boys’ water polo team defeated the Archbishop Mitty Monarchs, 25-13, in the team’s first non-league scrimmage of the year this afternoon at Palo Alto.
“It just kind of showed where we’re at right now,” Paly head coach Brandon Johnson said. “We only had about two weeks of preparation for this so I wasn’t expecting anything to be perfect. It definitely showed what we have to do.”
The scrimmage’s first 15-minute quarter started off quickly, the Monarchs winning the sprint and scoring the first goal off the game’s first possession. However, Paly’s Matt Abbott (’14) responded, putting the Vikings on the board with a goal of his own. After several missed shots by both Monarchs and Vikings, Winston Rosati (’16) scored once more for the Vikings giving them a 2-1 lead.
The Vikings’ momentum continued as Abbott scored his second goal of the afternoon. Followed by two more goals from Scott Powell (’14) and Andrew Jozefov (’17), the Paly team began to stretch their lead into the first half, 5-1. Ensuing an ejection and a failed pass that went to the Monarch’s goalie, the Monarchs came back, scoring their second goal of the scrimmage.
Following several missed attempts from the Vikings, Paly’s Kian McHugh (’14) found the back of the net, only to be followed by teammate Hans Usman (’15) off an assist from Will Mendenhall (’14). As the clock wound down to end the first quarter, the Vikings held a 6-3 lead over the Monarchs.
The Vikings dominated the second quarter with Jozefov, Rosati, Powell and Usman all scoring the first six consecutive goals of the quarter. The Monarchs not able to capitalize off a steal, gave the ball up quickly to the Vikings. Attempting to further widen their lead, Andrew Cho (’15) attempted a shot but was blocked by the goalie, only to have teammate Ray Zhou (’16) recover the ball and score once more for the Vikings; Paly would remain in the lead at the half, 12-4, as Zhou found the back of the net once more before time ran out.
Into the third quarter, Rosati scored his third and fourth goals of the afternoon followed by captain Ethan Look (’14) and Abbott.
The Monarchs once again tried to make the comeback scoring two goals back to back, however were met by the Vikings’ Cho, as he scored his first goal of the scrimmage. After another Monarch goal, JJ Kadifa (’14) scored the Vikings final goal of the quarter. The Monarchs would score twice more before the end of the quarter, the Vikings still in the lead 19-9.
During the fourth quarter, the Vikings held onto their lead as Powell and Jozefov both responded to a fast goal from the Monarchs. Powell recorded his fifth score of the afternoon, followed by another goal from Look.
As Mitty scored their last three goals on the Vikings, Paly’s Zhou and Rosati both scored again, halting the final score at 25-13.
Captain Ethan Look was pleased with the outcome but noted the challenges his team had to overcome after losing last years’ six seniors.
“It’s completely changed our team dynamic,” Look said. “That’s tons of goals and tons of defense and a whole team dynamic we lose with them.”
Despite the key losses, Look has high hopes for the season, believing in the team’s potential to succeed.
“If we pull our teamwork together and learn how each other plays and really learn how to cooperate we’re going to be able to put goals away and stop some strong teams,” Look said.
Echoing Look’s beliefs, Johnson has already set high goals for the team as they look to start their league season.
“We want win as many league games as we can to put us in a position to qualify as high as we can, then try to win,” Johnson said.
The Vikings will play next in the Schmidt Tournament at Bellarmine College Prep. on Friday, September 13th.
