South Pasadena won against the Eagle Rock Eagles and maintained a lead throughout the game.
Story by Kamillah Morales
Staff Writer
Photo by Adrian Lopez
Staff Photographer
On Monday, Sept. 21, boys’ water polo faced Eagle Rock Eagles and won 12-9 after hitting a low point the previous week. The Eagles started in the lead, but the Tigers quickly surpassed them in the second quarter.
“Hopefully, our games will go up from here,” head coach Kathryn McCullough said. “I think we hit kind of rock bottom last week, but we went over some film and we did some practicing.”
With South Pasadena not having scored at all, Eagle Rock was in the lead 2-0 during the first quarter. But, things quickly shifted in the second quarter. Junior captain Mateo Salas was the first to score a goal for the Tigers after passing back and forth with senior captain Ethan Cheng. During the Eagle’s possession right after, sophomore attacker and hole-set Liam Englender stole the ball and passed it to junior attacker Quinn Sullivan. Sullivan, Englender, and junior Joshua Ha all followed after and made goals. With South Pasadena scoring five goals simultaneously, they took the lead 5-3.
“Our defense had less gaps this time,” head coach Kat McCullough said. “I think our offense– they were finding each other quicker than they were last game.”
In the second half of the game, both Eagle Rock’s offense and defense got increasingly aggressive. Despite their aggression allowing them to score two goals, it also led to Englender scoring a penalty shot with a minute left of the quarter. The Tigers kept their lead at the end of the third quarter 7-5.
The Eagle’s goalkeeper was leaving the corner of the goal vulnerable, allowing for senior captain Tanner Yamagata to pass to junior center Matthew Butler, who scored from the corner. A similar play was made right after as Cheng stole the ball from Eagle Rock and passed it to Butler. Butler then passed the ball again to Salas, who also scored from the same corner. In the last minute of the game, both teams were fired up and began scoring multiple goals. The Tigers were winning with a score of 11-9 with one second left, but sophomore goalkeeper Lucas Cologne threw a shot all the way from the Tiger’s net and into the Eagles’, making the final score 12-9.
“I think we played a lot better,” McCullough said. “We also had a couple kids who don’t usually get in, but they did get in during this game, and they made some goals, which was really exciting.”
The Tigers played the day after, on Tuesday, Sept. 22 against the Webb Gauls.
