Needing a win to advance to the Tri-County Athletic League
championship and guarantee a spot in next week’s Central Coast
Section playoffs, the San Benito boys water polo team could not
contain Brian Morton and the Salinas Cowboys on Thursday, as the
Cowboys started strong and finished strong en route to a 21-8
victory.
SALINAS
Needing a win to advance to the Tri-County Athletic League championship and guarantee a spot in next week’s Central Coast Section playoffs, the San Benito boys water polo team could not contain Brian Morton and the Salinas Cowboys on Thursday, as the Cowboys started strong and finished strong en route to a 21-8 victory.
The win advances Salinas into Saturday’s TCAL final, where it will square off against Carmel.
The Balers, meanwhile, have one more chance of extending their season into the CCS playoffs, although they will need to defeat Stevenson in the third- and fourth-place consolation match.
The two teams will battle Saturday at Santa Catalina. Match time is 4:30 p.m.
The winner will live to see another day, and further its season, while the loser will go home.
“We’re gonna have to have a heckuva game,” San Benito head coach Tom Agan said. “They’ve improved quite a bit.”
San Benito and Stevenson split their season series, with the Balers taking the first match 15-13 on Sept. 22, the Pirates earning a 16-11 victory on Oct. 23.
On Thursday, Stevenson lost to Carmel 8-4, although the private Pebble Beach school was leading at halftime.
“We’ve got another huge game on our hands,” Agan said.
For the Balers, they fell behind Salinas 3-0 after one quarter and 9-4 at halftime, and were simply unable to keep pace with the Cowboys in the end.
Morton equaled San Benito’s total with eight goals by himself.
“We just couldn’t contain him,” Agan said. “We changed the defense up, tried double-teaming him. But Salinas has a bunch of guys who stepped up. We just couldn’t get it done.”
Josh Schafer led the Balers with three goals scored and Nick Angulo added two, while Jaret Barios, Jake Garcia and Joe Larson each added one goal.
Salinas previously defeated San Benito during the regular season, 15-10.
The Balers are now 15-13 overall.
TEAM 1 2 3 4 F
SANB 0 4 2 2 8
SALN 3 6 7 5 21
