Boys’ water polo vanquished by crosstown rival Gunn 12-6

Andrew Jozefov (17) looks to pass to a teammate in the game against Gunn. Paly went on to lose to the Titans.

Andrew Jozefov (’17) looks to pass to a teammate in the game against Gunn. Paly went on to lose to the Titans.

Kylie Callan, Staff Writer

Paly boys’ water polo fell to crosstown rival Gunn in the last regular season game at home on Oct. 30.

Justyn Cheung (’16) was less than satisfied with his team’s performance.

“We played their game, not our game,” Cheung said. “We had a lot of mistakes coming out of it. We didn’t really [do] what we practiced. We were just a little lost in the water.”

Gunn dominated the first quarter, with four goals scored early on. Andrew Jozefov (’17) managed to turn things around slightly for Paly with one goal, but the quarter ended with the Vikings still trailing 4-1.

The second quarter started with another two goals for Gunn, bringing the score to 6-1. Ray Zhao (’15) and Winston Rosati (’16) scored consecutively to bring the score to 6-3. Gunn slipped in another goal shortly before the end of the quarter. The score read 7-3 Gunn at the half.

The third quarter was largely defensive for the Vikings. After a goal by Gunn, Rosati answered with one of his own, making it 8-4. This was the extent of Paly goals, however, with Gunn managing to widen their lead to 11-4 by the end of the period.

After Gunn scored their twelfth goal of the game, Paly answered with two goals from Lucas Novak (’15) and Seth Alston (’15). This was not enough to catch up to the Titans, however, and the game ended in a 12-6 loss for the Vikings.

Jozefov was frustrated with the final result.

“We definitely could have done better,” Jozefov said. “Stuff that we [worked] on for the entire year just wasn’t working for us. It’s not anything Gunn did, we just didn’t execute our game plan.”

Cheung stated that the regular season has gone well for Paly, despite the loss to Gunn.

“I think for the most part our season went really well,” Cheung said. “We’ve definitely improved a lot since our first game.”

Novak echoed Cheung’s opinion of the regular season.

“As the season has gone on, we’ve improved every game,” Novak said. “Our team has been a lot more variant than I would have liked, but it’s been a very fun season and a very fun team.”

The Vikings will play in the league playoffs starting next week.