After suffering four straight losses, including two to open the
St. Francis Invitational on Friday, the San Benito High boys water
polo team rebounded to claim its last two matches of the 32-team
tournament and finish in 13th place.
LAFAYETTE
After suffering four straight losses, including two to open the St. Francis Invitational on Friday, the San Benito High boys water polo team rebounded to claim its last two matches of the 32-team tournament and finish in 13th place.
Falling to San Ramon’s California High 25-11 and Concord’s Clayton Valley 12-9 to start the St. Francis tournament, which took place over three different pools, the Balers (4-6 overall) topped Berkeley 19-11 in its third game and Pinole Valley 13-12 in overtime to end the tournament on a high note.
“I was pretty pleased to be (competitive) in three games,” San Benito head coach Tom Agan said. “The first one, we weren’t in. We’ve got plenty to work on, but there is a glimmer there … just got to keep working on it.”
The highlight of the tournament for the Balers came in their fourth and final game against Pinole Valley. Trailing by a goal with less than a minute remaining in the fourth quarter, San Benito got the ball into the two-meter and were promptly fouled by Pinole Valley.
San Benito was forced to pass out of the two-meter as a result, and Baler Tyler Agan received the ball on the wing with the shot clock about to expire. But instead of delivering a hard shot, Agan lofted the ball up and over the Pinole Valley keeper for the game-tying goal with 26 seconds left.
In sudden-death overtime, Eric Nicolaysen supplied the game-winner one minute and 57 seconds into extra time, giving San Benito a narrow 13-12 victory.
“And yes,” coach Agan said, “that one felt really good.
“It was a team effort. Everybody had a piece of it. They worked together pretty well. We’ll see if we can build on it.”
The win over Pinole Valley followed a victory over Berkeley and a narrow loss to Clayton Valley, which pulled ahead of San Benito with four minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
“We were in that one right up until the end,” Agan said.
Josh Schafer led the Balers in the four matches with a combined 20 goals, while Nick Angulo had 19 total. Nicolaysen finished with six, Tyler Agan with four, Danny Jarrett with two and Josh McIntyre with one.
Keeper Trevor Agan had a combined 28 saves.
The Balers (1-1 TCAL) will return to league play Wednesday when they will host Monterey at 3:30 p.m.
