The Paly Boys’ Water Polo Team conquered Monta Vista with a score of 17-7 on Tuesday afternoon.  With this result, the Vikings continue on with the season with a record of 1-1, 1-0.  

The Viking started off the game strong, scoring seven goals in the first of four quarters.

“I thought they did overall really well, they came out firing really strong,” Coach Aaron Johnson said.  “They set the tone, not just for this game, but for the whole season.”

The half continued with Ben Rapperport (‘19) launching a pass to sophomore Dexter Gormley (‘20), who was alone, and with a pump fake easily scored the Vikings’ 10th goal of the game.  

This described much of the second quarter, Rapperport sending long passes to Gormley and to senior, Jack Anderson (‘18) who each had two goals in the second quarter.  

Towards the end of the half, the Monta Vista team made an effort to pull ahead, however, it was unsuccessful as Rapperport made a remarkable save. After the save, the Vikings were called for a foul from close range. As the Monta Vista player took the shot after the foul, Rapperport swatted the ball closing the half with a score of 12-3.  

One of the exceptional plays of the second half was Bryan Look’s (‘18) play with Matthew Nemeth (‘18).  It started off with Look blocking a shot, despite the opponents’ recovery of possession, Look stole the ball and sent a pass to Nemeth, who buried the ball through the goalie’s hands.      

The Vikings’ seemed to cool down for much of the fourth quarter, as they started their rotations.  

“We need to stay on the same page for four quarters, I think that’s the main issue right now.  When we get our rotations and subs going we get off the page we were on,” Johnson said.  

This small issue did not seem to bother Johnson at all.  

“It’s a pretty easy fix so I think we are going to be good going through the rest of the season, but I was happy with how the game went, it was a good start.”

Their next game will be at Los Altos on Thursday afternoon against the Eagles.