The562’s coverage of Aquatic sports in Long Beach is sponsored by the Aquatic Capital of America Foundation.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly is sponsored by Bryson Financial.
It’s one thing to have skill, it’s another to have momentum. The Long Beach Poly water polo team was slow to start their CIF-SS Division 2 quarterfinals matchup against Brea Olinda at LBCC, and were unable to stop the Wildcats early momentum in a 9-4 loss.
“They 100% [took the momentum and ran with it],” said Poly coach Ish Pluton. “They had the emotions and momentum on their side and it worked great for them. Their studs are really good. They’ve got size on us, those kids were big, they played a physical brand of water polo and that’s what they needed to do to beat us.”
The Jackrabbits found solid looks at the cage to open the first quarter but were unable to capitalize with a handful of shots on goal. Brea Olinda took advantage and played physical on the other end, scoring three straight goals in the first from Ethan Tergina and two from Kyle Franks.
“They got some good goals early that definitely helped them,” said Pluton. “Watching the game progress going up and down the pool you could tell that we were more conditioned and that maybe if those early goals didn’t go it’d be a completely different story. They just caught us a little off guard on that one.”
Brea’s clump of goals would become a theme for the Poly defense but the Jackrabbits put together a handful of small answers. Poly’s Anthony Song would find the back of the cage at the end of the first, before another pair of Wildcat goals to open the second. The Jackrabbits responded with a goal to end the half from Emerson Laporta.
Brea Olinda received their pair of goals in the second quarter from seniors Russel Decesaris and Gavin Templton. The Wildcats sent several overpasses towards Templeton’s way in the first half before eventually finding his first of two goals and a load of momentum for his team.
“We tried to focus on our game plan. Our game plan was to continue to drive, attack, and swim [Templeton] through and they did that. We swam [Templeton] through, we were trying to get him into ejection trouble. That’s what you gotta do in those situations and we continued to do that but it just didn’t workout.”
The Jackrabbits found just two more goals in the second half from Gael Cruz and Laporta. Laporta finished with a team-high two goals, and the Jackrabbits scored just one goal in each quarter.
“We had a lot of good counter attacks with just unlucky bounces,” said Pluton of Poly’s scoring opportunities. A lot of shots we were in the right position but were off balance, and other times we’d be in the right position for a shot and we shoot and it hits the bar. The crossbar was not our friend today and sometimes it is. Sometimes you get bar-ins, and sometimes the bar decides it needs to go out.”
Brea Olinda added goals from Decesaris, two from Franks, and another from Templeton. The Wildcats had three players with multiple goals including a game-high four goals from Franks. In the cage for Brea was Derek Maddoz, who put up a wall on defense with an impressive 16 blocks.
The Wildcats will go on to face Murrieta Valley next Tuesday in the semifinals.
After the game Pluton made a point to thank his seniors for an incredible season, and he said that they’ve helped pave the way for the future of the Poly water polo program.
“We have 11 seniors this year and they’re incredible leaders,” he said. “In the last minutes of the game they showed that even though it was a foregone game they still put all their effort in to show to the underclassmen that this is what Poly water polo is. It’s a never give up, put it all out there, and wear it on your sleeve kind of team.”
