Men’s water polo rebounds after last week’s loss
Will Bodendorfer,
HUB Staff–
Davis High men’s varsity water polo team took on Granite Bay Grizzlies on Tuesday in a non-league game, and avenged their 12-6 loss to Buchanan High School on Saturday with an easy win.
The Blue Devils (8-2, 1-0 in league) took control of the game early, scoring 2 goals in the first 2 minutes, and outscoring the Grizzlies (10-4, 2-0 in league) 6-2 in the first quarter. Sophomore Cameron Wright led the charge, scoring or assisting on 4 of the Blue Devils 6 first quarter goals.
Coach Tracy Stapleton said he was impressed with the effort his team put forth. “We played hard and with a lot of fire in our belly…There were some things that didn’t work out for us but we just kept working and working and working. ”
The second quarter proved to be more of the same for the Blue Devils, as 4 different players scored in the quarter to extend the lead to 10-3 going into half.
The Grizzlies seemed to take a page out of the Blue Devils book, and started the 3rd quarter quick with a barrage of shots. However, Davis senior Jeff Stark was a brick wall in goal, and shut down the Granite Bay momentum with two huge saves to open the second half.
Stark, who had 14 saves on the day, said team chemistry played a large role in the win. “ We play very well as a team because we’ve all known and played with each other for a pretty long time and I think that’s really helped us become a lot better.”
The teams were relatively even for the rest of the quarter, with Granite Bay scoring 4 goals and Davis scoring 5, including an incredible buzzer beating shot by sophomore George Van Vorhis with 1 second left.
The Blue Devils entered the fourth quarter up 15-7, and again Stark started the period off with several big saves. From there the pace of the game slowed down as the Blue Devils attempted to hold on to the lead. Each team scored once in the final quarter, and the game ended 16-8, with Davis winning.
Wright led the team in goals with 4, while senior Bradley Nicholson and sophomores Daniel Alvarez and Nick Masson each scored twice.
The Blue Devils will look to extend their win total to 9 games in their next match against Tokay High School on Oct. 7.
