By Reese Meister
The Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) boys’ varsity water polo team suffered a tough loss against the Corona del Mar (CdM) Sea Kings on Wednesday, Oct. 5 at Edison High School, ending with a score of 2-21.
Going into the game, the Barons knew they would have to fight hard.
“[The goal was] just to play a good game of water polo,” junior goalie Joshua Merrill said. “They weren’t even in our league last year, so we just wanted to show them we’re a competitive team.”
Merrill’s teammate, junior Carter Pitt shared similar hopes for the game.
“We didn’t want to go into the game thinking, ‘Oh this is going to be horrible, we’re going to get destroyed’—we wanted to go in thinking that we could show them how competitive we are and that we can actually put up an effort to play well in the game,” Pitt said.
Head coach Kyle Adama highlighted junior Daigo Fujita and senior Ruben Andelin for their admirable performances in the game. Pitt and Adama both also referred to Merrill, who had several crucial saves, as a key player in the game.
When the referee blew the whistle to start the game, the players rushed into action. The Barons were not able to secure the ball in the sprint, so they were forced to drop back into defense. CdM used this advantage to take a quick shot on goal, scoring the first point just ten seconds into the game.
Later on, the Sea Kings scored again, but the Barons followed up with a drive to the goal. Junior Nathan Tran attempted a shot but was blocked by CdM’s goalie. Merrill, however, matched this stop right after with his own save for FVHS, tipping a close shot away from the goal.
A few more impressive defensive plays followed after. Senior Vincent Hernandez pushed the ball out of a Sea King’s hand right before his shot, allowing Merrill to collect it and the Barons to shift to offense. On the next CdM possession, Andelin, senior Alexander Tran and sophomore Ryan Zarzana worked together to force another turnover.
Despite some crucial defensive stops, after various cases of miscommunication by the Barons and some quick turnovers by CdM, the score was 0-7 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter began with another lost sprint for the Barons. Alexander Tran was soon ejected; however, CdM’s shot bounced off the sidebar during the six on five.
The Barons struggled to gain momentum throughout the second quarter. Nathan Tran attempted a few shots, and he, Alexander Tran, Andelin and Fujita led ball movement on offense, but no plays resulted in goals.
However, one highlight of the game came toward the end of the second quarter when Merrill successfully blocked the Sea Kings’ five-meter penalty shot. Soon after, when Zarzana had been ejected, Merrill made another save, blocking a low shot during the six on five.
By the end of the first half, the score was 0-12.
In the third quarter, FVHS once again lost the sprint and faced pressure from the CdM offense. Pitt and Andelin drew several fouls, and Fujita narrowly missed a goal during a six on five.
Nathan Tran, Pitt and junior Travis Ziebarth had several key defensive stops, but the Sea Kings still made some strong shots, skipping the ball into a corner on one of them. The quarter ended with a score of 0-17.
The Barons did not give up, though, and found energy to make some impressive plays in the fourth quarter. They started out strong with Nathan Tran winning the sprint.
Later, Pitt tipped a forceful shot by the Sea Kings to lead the ball out of bounds. Skillful defensive plays continued throughout the quarter as the Barons put pressure on the CdM offense and Merrill had more impressive saves. Several turnovers were forced, including a steal by Fujita and various drawn fouls by Pitt.
Pitt saw one of these fouls as an opening to make a quick play, crossing the ball to Andelin at set. Andelin took a strong shot to score the team’s first goal of the game, generating loud cheers from the Barons’ fans in the audience.
Toward the end of the game, a CdM player was ejected, giving the Barons an opportunity to score during the six on five. Andelin took advantage of the set up and passed to Fujita, who was stationed near the goal. Fujita rose out of the water and took a clean, powerful shot to earn the Baron’s second point.
Although there was a significant gap in the score by the end of the game, Adama felt that the team did well compared to recent performances.
“We made a great improvement from our last few games. We had some very close [games and] a few losses,” Adama said. “Last game was a win but I think overall we’re making a positive move towards smarter plays and movements.”
While Merrill and Pitt seemed to agree that the team put forward a good effort, they also offered an opinion on how the team could learn from the game.
“[CdM] play[s] a really hard press—something that the better teams do,” Merrill said. “We definitely need to work on releasing for the ball and getting open for each other and better drives.”
The Barons’ next home game will be against Edison High School at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 12, at CdM High School.
“We have Edison next week. I think the boys are all pumped up ready to go,” Adama said. “I want to make sure that we’re all running on the same page and making sure that we are working as a team and accomplishing all of our goals.”
