Boys water polo threatens before falling 10-8 to Cowboys
GILROY – After failing to break the Salinas full court press in the opening quarter and only striking twice before the half, the Gilroy High boys water polo team started to slowly nibble away at a four-goal deficit in the second half of Tuesday’s league finale.
Still behind by four heading into the final quarter, the Mustangs kicked it into another gear and threatened with back-to-back goals in a 26-second span from senior Daniel Dickson and junior Chris Hunt. But Gilroy could not continue the late-game surge – not getting another shot off in the final 1:13 to fall 10-8 to Salinas.
“We were so close,” said Hunt of coming back to beat Salinas. “I think they tired out and we never stopped motivating ourselves. I feel that we played really good even though we got the loss.”
Hunt scored the final Gilroy goal – stealing the ball and swimming directly to the Salinas net to score his second of two goals. Dickson squeaked one inside the near post only seconds earlier to begin the late charge.
“Another close one,” head coach Tom Clark said. “They totally annihilated us last year. We’re just getting closer and closer.”
Junior Lee Walton matched Hunt’s team-high two-goal total, while junior Travis Gamble, sophomore Scott Castruita, junior Jake Klaver and Dickson each scored one goal apiece.
“We’re just getting better and better,” said Clark, who was happy with his squad’s late-game effort against a veteran Salinas squad. “We tend to do that because we have good conditioning to finish games strong, but we don’t start aggressive.”
Salinas netted the first five goals of the game stretching into the second quarter before Walton found his touch with two consecutive strikes 13 seconds apart. Facing a 6-2 spread at the break, Gamble found the back of the net on a turnaround blast. Following another Cowboys’ strike on a lob shot, Castruita rocketed a shot into the net and Hunt poked in a rebound to cut the gap to 7-5 with 2:14 left in the third quarter. The Cowboys, however, retaliated with two straight goals in the final 45 seconds for a four-goal advantage.
“We played a lot better than I thought we would,” Hunt said.
In the final quarter, Klaver finished off a long, accurate pass from Dickson – but Salinas struck again to reclaim a four-goal lead. Two late Gilroy strikes forced the Cowboys into a time-out, but the hosts could not complete the comeback.
The Mustangs finished their league schedule with a 2-4 record and they are 10-8 overall with an entry into the Monte Vista Christian Tournament and then the T-CALs coming up. Last season, Gilroy finished 9-19 overall and last in league.
“We’re still over .500. We improved. Our goal was to finish over .500. We have six games to go and we definitely should,” Clark said. “Everybody’s back next year, except for one senior.”
