Carlmont’s junior-varsity boys water polo team clashed against Menlo Atherton High School on Oct. 20.

The Scotts could not hold up to the extremely physical Menlo Atherton team. After Carlmont won all but one sprint, Menlo Atherton used dirty tactics to reclaim the ball and harm Carlmont’s players.

After the final buzzer sounded, the tired boys filed out of the pool, one of which was nursing a large gash on his arm.

Sophomore, Parsa Attri, received some of the worst abuse form the Menlo Atherton team. Attri’s bloody arm was proof of the physicality of the match.

During the third quarter a member of Menlo Atherton’s team grabbed hold of Attri and dug his unchecked nails into him, tearing a four inch gash along his wrist.

“The refs were horrible!” exclaimed Attri, voicing the opinion of many of his fellow players, “They didn’t even check nails.”

In fact, the referees did not check the nails of the players before any of the four games they presided over that day. The nail check is a routine requirement before water polo games to ensure that injuries like Attri’s don’t occur.

Five other players displayed less severe scratches than Attri’s along their arms, backs, and legs.

“They played so dirty and never got called on it,” said freshman Dante Amigone, one of the players who felt the pain of unchecked nails along his legs.

At half time the score was still close at 3-5 with Menlo Atherton in the lead. Sophomore, Jared Fitzpatrick, said, “It was a well matched team in skill, they were just more physical.”

The lenient refereeing and the aggressive playing by Menlo Atherton caused the Carlmont team to falter in the second half.

Carlmont shot 14 times in the second half, one of which made it into the goal. The aggressive defensive blocked Carlmont’s shots and sent them anywhere but the goal, one even bounced off the goalie’s head with quite a bit of force.

Menlo Atherton doubled their score through brutality and a series of well places shots at the expense of Carlmont.

Carlmont had no trouble stealing the ball from Menlo Atherton’s weak ball handling, but was unable to make the necessary shots.

The boys varsity team that had played previous ended in a 4-18 loss.

The junior-varsity was able to hold them to a little closer final score. The tally at the end of the game was a 4-10 score.