Varsity boys water polo defeated Diamond Bar 13-12 at their last league game Wednesday, Oct. 19.

At this away game at Diamond Bar High School, Walnut took the lead with senior Caleb Le shooting a bar-in 30 seconds into the game, followed by several other goals, and ended the quarter with a score of 5-2. In the second quarter, freshman Nathan Wang and junior Dean Whalen defended their lead, scoring two points, and finished the first half with a score of 7-3.

“We were up by a couple [points], so we were feeling pretty confident. We didn’t want to get cocky, but what happened was we did get cocky,” senior Talmage Cobb said. “They came up. We stopped swimming back to defense, and we made more mistakes because we thought we had it in the bag.”

During the third quarter, Diamond Bar took the first and second goals. Walnut recovered the ball and managed to take back their points, but not without a lot of their players earning several major exclusions and fouls. They ended the quarter with both teams scoring four points, settling at 11-7. 

“It was surprising,” Wang said. “We had a lot of fouls and rough [plays], and [Diamond Bar] was scoring more goals. We thought it would be an easy game, but we never lost league, so we knew we were going to win.”

The fourth quarter consisted of several tight plays. Walnut let a few balls in, and senior Samuel Au was taken out of the game after receiving three major exclusions. With a few minutes left, Diamond Bar managed to consecutively score three points, closing their gap to one point. Both teams called their timeouts to refocus, but Walnut ended the game victorious with a score of 13-12. 

“That was a big game for us. We usually don’t play very well at Diamond Bar for some reason. It’s like a mental block throughout all the teams I had since I’ve been here,” coach Bryan Canchola said. “They did a good job. The first half, the third quarter, and the fourth quarter was just trying to survive, but overall, I’m happy with the results and excited for next week.”