Gilroy
For someone so new to the sport, Christopher’s Melia Santos certainly made her presence known.
The freshmen water polo player scored three goals and had two shots on goal in the Cougars 14-11 nailbiter win at Gilroy Tuesday. The rookie seemed to be everywhere the ball was, playing like her veteran teammates.
“I’ve never actually played water polo before,” Santos said. “With my team I felt really confident that we’d do good so I was really proud of everyone. I’m actually really happy. I feel accomplished.”
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The Cougars were led in scoring by Natalie Garcia who had five goals in the game. CHS coach Jim Shuster said this was the type of game he expects from his junior sprinter.
“Natalie is what we consider to be as fast as a shark, she’s quick everywhere,” Shuster said. “She can create whatever she wants to create. She can be open or draw defenders in to allow everybody else to be free. Scoring five goals is one thing, but the over all performance is phenominal.”
The first half was dominated by Christopher, who had an 8-3 lead late in the second quarter. A couple quick goals from Gilroy cut the lead to 8-5 at the half, giving the team some momentum. The Mustangs scored four unanswered goals in the third quarter to the game at 9-9 heading into the fourth.
“The one thing I always like to reempasize is to never give up and continuing to fight,” GHS coach Fred Latimore said. “I felt like in the third quarter we really came back and made it a game when we could’ve let the game get out of control.”
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Scoreboard issues led to the teams not knowing what the score actually was. Senior Abby Kienle said she told her team to just keep attacking and never give up.
“I was just full steam ahead,” Kienle said. “Our mindset was play like we’re down by one and we only have this much time left. It was full steam ahead, fast breaks, make opportunities and just move. In the end unfortunately we weren’t able to do that.”
Kienle scored six goals in the game for the Mustangs and was complemented by teammate Katty Clark. Clark scored three goals, had two blocks and a steal against CHS.
“I was super impressed with Katty Clark and Abby Kienle stepping up,” Latimore said. “I just think it kind of speaks to their leadership on the team. Unfortunately it didn’t go our way, but we fought until the end. I’m proud of them.”
Gilroy will play 5 p.m. Thursday at Monterey. Christopher will be back in the water hosting its “Stinky Rose” tournament at 1p.m. today and 9 a.m. Saturday.
