The Palo Alto boys’ water polo team defeated the Monta Vista Matadors 14-7 on Paly’s Senior Night this Thursday, Oct. 24 under the Paly pool lights. Coach Brandon Johnson was pleased with the eleven seniors’ last home league game of the regular season.
“We tried to make the seniors play as much as they could tonight,” Johnson said. “It was a fun game for them and I’m glad we got a win for them.”
The Matadors won the initial sprint, but after a Vikings steal Sam Kelley(‘14) found the back of the net for the first goal of the game followed by another Viking goal from Kian McHugh (‘14). Following several missed shots from both the Vikings and the Matadors, Conner Simrell (‘14) scored off a 5-meter penalty shot for the Vikings’ third goal of the game. The Vikings secured a 4-1 lead over the Matadors at the end of the first quarter.
However, the Matadors started the second quarter off with a fast goal following the sprint. The Vikings reacted by making quick work off a Matador goalie ejection with a goal from Andrew Jozefov (‘17). The Vikings momentum continued with a goals from both Winston Rosati (‘16) and Hans Usman (‘15) followed by another goal by Rosati to end the first half with the Vikings leading 8-3.
The Matadors came back strong after halftime scoring two consecutive goals. JJ Kadifa (‘14) responded finding the net for his first goal of the game for the Vikings. The Vikings held onto their lead at the end of the third quarter with a score of 9-5.
The fourth and final quarter was dominated by the Vikings. Lukas Novak (‘15) and McHugh both scored, followed by another goal by Novak. The Vikings momentum continued with goals from Omri Newman (‘14) and Novak for the final Viking points of the game. The Matadors scored their final two goals of the game bringing the final score to 14-7 with the Vikings taking the lead.
The loss of the eleven seniors will leave the Vikings with a need for the younger players to step up during next year’s season, but Johnson is confident that the returning players will be up for the challenge.
“We’ll lose a lot of leadership, but we lost nine seniors last year and we’ve done fine. A lot of these guys are big parts of our team but we’ve got players beneath that can step up next year for sure,” said head coach Brandon Johnson.
Captain Sam Kelley (‘14) agrees with Johnson and also believes that the team will come back strong after the loss of this year’s seniors, but for now he is looking into the immediate future and hopes the team will earn a spot at the Central Coast Section (CCS) tournament.
“They have a lot of upcoming potential, even tonight they played a good amount of time without any seniors in the pool and still kept up our goal count,” Kelley said. “As for CCS, we want to earn at least a number three seed and win [CCS].”
The Vikings will play next on Thursday, Oct. 31st against at Los Altos.
