The Last Water Polo Home Game…Sort of
November 17, 2008 – 9:30 amOn Thursday, October 30th, our Titan water polo team beat Aliso Niguel 7-6. It was the day of our Senior farewell; an event in which the seniors on the team are recognized for their years of hard work and commitment with a small gift from the team moms, some words from the coach and a nice picture with close friends and family. The tradition is a formal recognition of the final high school water polo home game for our senior men. After the farewell, the game began and it was not one to be missed.
Aliso came out strong, winning the sprint and scoring an early goal that went uncontested for the whole quarter. Try as the Titans might, they could not even the score this early in the game. It has become a sort of habit over the years for our Titans to step up the game later on and we usually see them lose the first quarter in a tough match. Whether its simply superior conditioning or the team works better under pressure is a matter of debate among the fans. Alex Nowlin offered some insight after the game saying, “Well, since we played with our off-hands in the first half we had to step it up late game.”
Senior Kyle Zimmerman won the sprint of the second quarter and up and coming freshman Steven Bitter put in the first goal for the Titans. Aliso retaliated but Tesoro was not to be out done this quarter. Nowlin worked some left-handed magic and tied the game up at 2-2. Before the quarter was out senior co-captain Michael Martin left his mark by scoring a welcomed point late in the quarter and our Titans went into half time with a close 3-2 lead.
At this point the game could go either way and both teams felt it going into the second half. Senior co-captain Bryan Faust won the sprint of the third quarter giving us possession but Aliso was able to put in a goal anyway tying the game up. Senior co-captain Michael Snow added a point to the score board and Bitter racked up another point as well. Before the time was up Aliso managed to score again keeping the game close. It was an intense match with team mom Mrs. Nowlin leading the other parents and fans in cheers for our boys. The score going into the final quarter was 5-4 Tesoro.
Faust managed to win the sprint again and freshman Brendan Smith was able to add a point to the board. The game had been crazy so far with the officials calling the same plays differently according to some arbitrary design only a referee can fathom. That is to be expected to a certain extent in any game but no one was prepared for the insanity of the fourth quarter. Faust was called on a brutality foul, meaning he was kicked out for the remainder of the game and he was not allowed to play in the next game. Aliso also got a penalty shot off this call which they missed. In water polo there is a saying that, “the ball never lies” it means that when a penalty shot is missed its because it was a bad call. Faust later commented “I usually don’t hit girls but Aliso has always been an exception.” After the penalty, shouts of “Our house!” were roared around the pool deck and the Aliso players responded by flicking off the entire Titan team and parents on both sides were shouting at the officials to get control of the game. Through the torrent of timeouts and power plays that ensued in the violent final quarter Aliso managed to put in two goals, tying the game at 6-6. Nowlin sealed the victory with a much needed late game goal.
Although the Titans celebrated then as the last home game, our boys would go on to beat Laguna Hills at home on Halloween, the following day. As an added bonus the Tesoro Hosted its first Boys Water Polo CIF game on Tuesday, November 11th, and our Titans stepped up and won their first ever CIF game.
By Jake Denney, Staff Writer
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