Paly boys’ water polo outlasted the Homestead Mustangs in a close game at home Thursday night, winning 13-11. Winston Rosati (’16) led the Vikings with six goals.

Coach Brandon Johnson was frustrated with his team’s performance.

“I don’t think we played very well,” Johnson said. “We tend to match the level of intensity that the other team brings, and…[tonight] we didn’t play very well.”

The game started quickly, with both teams scoring one goal. Early goals by Lucas Novak (’15) and Rosati brought the score to 3-1. The Vikings’ defense stayed strong, with Luke Schroder (’15) making several stops as goalie. Rosati then scored again, but Homestead slipped in another two goals to make it 4-3 at the end of the first quarter.

The Vikings fell apart slightly during the second quarter, missing multiple shots. Homestead tied it up 4-4 early on. A pass from Schroder to Kevin Bowers (’16) across the pool and a shot by Bowers gave Paly the lead again, 5-4. Rosati made it 6-4 soon after. Rosati, however, was ejected twice, and both times resulted in a goal for Homestead. The score was 6-6 heading into halftime.

Paly started out strong the second half, with Rosati scoring off the opening drive and putting the Vikings ahead once again, 7-6. Novak and Rosati then both scored again, and Novak assisted Andrew Jozefov (’17) to widen Paly’s lead to 10-6. Rosati was then ejected a third time and was thus unable to return to play in the rest of the game. Homestead was able to net two goals before the end of the quarter, making it 10-8 going into the fourth quarter.

Justyn Cheung (’16) started off the fourth quarter for the Vikings, giving Paly a three-goal lead. Ray Zhao (’15) then scored, and Homestead was able to score twice before Zhao scored again, making the final score of the game 13-11 Paly.

Rosati was frustrated with how close the game was, but he believes the team is working better together.

“It was closer than it should have been, but we [came] out with a win,” Rosati said. “It’s been a rough season, but our chemistry is improving with every game, so I think at the end of the season we’ll start doing really well.”

Novak echoed Rosati’s opinion that the team is improving, though he stated that they still struggle to maintain a high level of play against weaker teams.

“Each game we keep getting better,” Novak said. “We tend to play really [well] with good teams, though we struggle to have that same intensity on worse teams.”

Johnson agreed with Novak’s assessment of the team’s lack of consistent intensity playing different teams.

“[We need to] keep our awareness up, keep our intensity,” Johnson said. “We tend to play to the level of our opponent, so just consistency is what I think we need to work on.”

According to Novak, the team hopes to keep improving and beat Gunn in the league championships and CCS playoffs.

The Vikings will face the Monta Vista Matadors at Monta Vista on Tuesday at 6:45 p.m.