Despite a 15-5 loss against the Hillsdale Knights, the Scots varsity boys water polo team never gave up and fought hard the entire game at Carlmont High School on Thursday, Oct. 17.
So far, the season hasn’t been going well for the Scots as they have lost many games.
However, the Scots were fired up and determined to win after losing their first match against the Knights earlier in the season.
In the beginning of the game, the Knights gained possession of the ball first and started firing shots at the Scots. After numerous attempts, the Knights scored and led the game with a 1-0 lead.
Carlmont junior Eli Samon started to make offensive plays and opportunities for the Scots, however they failed to score. After the Knights took a penalty shot, they now led the game 2-0 and were looking strong.
Although the Scots took many shots and tried different ways of scoring, nothing seemed to work. The Carlmont head coach, Adam Dean, started subbing out players and gave seniors as much playing time as possible since it was senior night. At halftime, the Knights were winning 8-0 and the Scots needed to start scoring if they wanted a chance to win.
“Well today, we played really good defense, also really good offense. We had good passing and brought the energy all four quarters,” said Taner Heidenreich, a junior from Hillsdale High School.
As the second half began, Samon immediately scored a goal, skipping it across the water and into the top right of the goal. The crowd cheered, and the Scots scored their first goal, making the game 8-1 for the Knights. After two more goals from the Knights, Carlmont senior Kian Bhatt assisted fellow senior Nathan Chan with another goal at the end of the third quarter.
The Knights’ defense was holding up strong until Samon scored again halfway through the fourth and final quarter. Following five goals from the Knights, Bhatt launched two throws and scored both of them. Despite a valiant effort from the Scots, the game’s final score was 15-5 in favor of the Knights.
“We made a few mistakes in the beginning that we didn’t need to make. So fixing that early helped us win,” said Hillsdale junior Robert Ciardella.
Regardless of the Scots’ second loss to the Knights this season, the team was motivated every minute of the game.
“In the fourth quarter, the energy from the bench and players helped us play harder and score a couple more goals before the game ended,” said Aeron Gurskis, a sophomore from Carlmont.
The Scots look at every game as a way to improve, pinpointing areas that the team needs to work on.
“We can improve spacing and maybe our finishing a little bit,” Samon said.
