Varsity boys water polo lost their first game of California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) to Martin Luther King High School 12-15, concluding their season Tuesday, Oct. 31.
Two minutes into the game, sophomore Nathan Wang took the first goal, followed by senior Kevin Tseng and sophomore Anthony Santos. This allowed the Mustangs to take an early lead before Martin Luther King got some shots in and ended the first quarter with a score of 4-3, with Walnut in the lead.
“I was getting more energetic during the first half because seeing that score go up and racking up all those points, I really thought we had it,” goalie senior Ethan Chow said.
The second quarter began with goals being scored back and forth and concluded with a score of 8-6, with Walnut still in the lead. The Wolves caught up with Walnut in the third quarter which ended with a tie 10-10.
“I expected a hard game and we had a hard game due to the fact that we were up in the first half but fell down in the second,” Santos said. “Even though we worked hard, we still lost in the end but I’m still happy because in the end we still bonded together.”
Walnut lost their momentum in the fourth quarter despite having many close plays. Three minutes into the quarter, the point gap between the two teams extended to 13-10, with the opposing team taking the lead.
“I liked the way our guys played 100 percent the whole time. We did a good job meeting that challenge but at the end of the day, we made a [few] more mistakes than the other team did and we didn’t have enough time to recover,” coach Bryan Canchola said.
Despite their loss, the team celebrated the conclusion of their season and look forward to future seasons. After this season, boys water polo is moving out of Hacienda League and into the Palomares League.
“I’m super proud of the way we played the entire season and even with the ups and downs we had, we were able to stick together as a unit and did not detract from what our objective is,” Canchola said. “Next year, we’re going to be in a different league so closing out this year undefeated [in our league] was a really good step forward and something we can build on.”
