Almost a week after their game against Montgomery High, on Oct. 6, Bonita Vista High’s (BVH) Boys Water Polo team played a home game against Southwest High (SH). The score, while similar, was a drastic change from last week’s game. BVH boys water polo won with a total defeat and a 15 point difference, the final score was 19-4.

Varsity Coach Betty Alexander noticed a drastic improvement in the team’s play style. Since the last game took place during fall break more than half the team did not attend. However,

“Well [in our game with] Montgomery we didn’t talk as much and we were out of it [because] we didn’t have all our players so we were not very talkative that game. But this game we talked a lot more and we were a lot more aware of what was going on,” junior Kristian Gutierrez (5) said. 

The first quarter of the game started with SH winning the ball sprint which ended up leading to a five meter being called for BVH. Only two ejections were called, and only one of them was BVHs. However, making 6 goals while SH didn’t make any. The first quarter’s score board ended at a six point advantage for BVH; 6-0. 

Gallery • 2 Photos

Madelyn Omelina

Co-captain Caleb Hutchins (3) prepares to shoot during BVH's game against Southwest High (SH). He ended up making the shot which added to his seven total goals made in the game.

The second quarter began with two consecutive goals by SH and then three consecutive ejections for BVH players almost immediately after. The goals during that quarter were defensive counters, which means that SH’s goalie was met with a lot of one-on-one shot practice usually with team co-captain and senior Caleb Hutchins. This quarter ended with a score of 11-2.

“We did great at beating them […] We scored a lot of goals and that was great, [and we were] also just getting in there and hustling. [Our players] kept trying [and] they kept going [and] that’s very respectable; great team, great team effort, love that,” senior and goalie Robert Yetter said. 

This was Yetter’s first year playing water polo and playing as a goalie, but Alexander and his other teammates highly praise him for efficiently blocking the other team’s shots. 

By the time the third quarter rolled around, Alexander’s voice carried to the stands as she repeated to the players to focus on defense and less on scoring. Though BVH still scored, it was substantially less than the two previous quarters. The third quarter also saw the entry of newer players with less experience. During plays Alexander could be heard telling the more experienced players to pass the ball to the newer members so they could get more in-action experience. The third quarter score was 14-3. 

The final quarter only saw one more goal made by SH and five more made by BVH. Since the third quarter, BVH had been receiving less and less ejections for their players meaning that the game felt a little more relaxed. By the end of the game Alexander wasn’t yelling as loud and would repeat, “play defense and have fun.” The final game score was 19-4, BVH won with a 15 point advantage. 

“The score was really high, so I told them not to score anymore [and] I told them defense can be fun too just have fun playing defense because they wanted to score […] We are going to have a very busy October and I hope to see more and more improvement every game,” Alexander said.