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The Long Beach Poly girls’ water polo team got better and better as the game went on Friday night while hosting Muir, erupting for nine unanswered goals in the second half in an explosive 12-2 win in the CIF-SS Division 3 playoffs.
The Jackrabbits were led with a game-high four goals from Sequoia Newman meanwhile Leslie Vargas chipped in three. Cailey Christen also found a goal while Marcelina Leonor and Alyssa Greenwood each had a pair.
“Once we got the ball rolling we started to snowball and it kind of led the girls to get fired up and that’s what was missing in the first half,” said first-year Poly coach Ali Landeros. “It was just about getting that momentum going but once we got it, we got it.”
“We knew that we had them,” added Newman. “We were really motivated and we had a talk about how they were shutting down so we just put our foot on the gas even harder. We really wanted it and I think that’s what it was.”
Poly’s crescendo’s offense took time to develop as the game went on, and the Jackrabbits found just a single goal from Newman in the first quarter to show for it. In the meantime, the Jackrabbits relied on a stealthy press defense that forced Mustang shots to be taken from a distance while also racking up a number of shot clock violations to get the ball back.
The pair eventually traded blows in the second quarter with goals from Poly’s Newman and Marcelina Leonor meanwhile Muir found goals from Maya Mihalko and Jasmine Collins. The Jackrabbit defense would prove steady once again and hold the Mustangs scoreless for the rest of the game.
“It was just executing the game plan,” Landeros said. “We learned a lot of hard lessons over the last couple of games that included our defense so I think we over emphasized on the defense. It was just pressing high up on the lane, not letting them get the opportunity to swing, and shutting them down.”
“We’ve really been trying to figure out a defense that works for us this year,” added Newman. “We started dropping a lot and then we tried pressing [midway through the season] and after we started pressing we realized it’s what we needed to do.”
That defensive identity was among the several changes to the Poly team this year after Landeros took over the program near the beginning of the season. Newman added that it was a hard start to the season while trying to adjust to the changes, and says that it was a good feeling to catch fire in their playoff opener.
“We really wanted this all season especially after a hard start to the season. We were really excited going into this year only losing one girl before losing our old coach and we got a new coach really late. So at the beginning of the year we kind of struggled getting our footing but now being able to go all out and give it everything from the first quarter really helped us and I think we can go really far this year.”
The Jackrabbits went on to score their nine unanswered goals in the second half starting with a pair of goals in a minute span midway through the third from Cailey Christen and Leslie Vargas. Just a minute later, Alyssa Greenwood added her first goal to cap off a strong third quarter spark for the Poly offense.
Poly added six goals in the fourth quarter, spreading the ball around with goals from Leonor and Greenwood and a pair from both Newman and Vargas.
“Oh it was great,” Newman said of her whole team getting involved. “I mean, you saw us. We were stoked.”
The Jackrabbits will look to keep the ball rolling on Wednesday while hosting a local quarterfinals matchup against St. Joseph.
