The San Benito High boys water polo team entered the season with the goal of winning the Monterey Bay League Pacific Division championship.
However, the Haybalers’ aspirations took a serious hit after they lost a 12-11 overtime decision to visiting Christopher on Sept. 25. San Benito actually led 6-1 with 4:16 left until halftime, but couldn’t finish off a game Christopher team led by junior two-meter defender Zach Gallardo, who scored a match-high six goals.
“It’s extremely disappointing because as a team we failed to play good defense and we kind of fell apart in the second half,” said Balers senior Charlie Garcia, who scored a team-high four goals.
“When you’re up 6-1 and the other team comes back to win, it’s just frustrating because a team should never come back from 6-1 to beat you. We need to work on conditioning and decision-making because our passes were awful. We had maybe three good passes in the second half.”
Indeed, the Balers, who were 4-2 in league play entering Thursday’s match with Alvarez, committed turnovers on the majority of their possessions from the second half on, and when they weren’t turning it over, they took ill-advised shots.
The Cougars didn’t exactly have the best shot selection, either, as they unleashed a number of shots from beyond six meters—the acceptable standard for what constitutes a decent scoring opportunity.
Gallardo was simply unstoppable as the match went on; he scored six of the Cougars’ final eight goals, including a couple in dramatic fashion. He produced a beautiful lob shot with 7.5 seconds left in the first half of the overtime session—overtime consists of two three-minute periods—to give Christopher an 11-10 lead it would never relinquish.
Gus Spurzem scored three goals for the Balers, and David Werolin and Zach Fulcher had two goals each. Garcia did a nice job of preventing shots from reaching goal, blocking a couple of shots when he was defending Gilroy’s hole-set in front of his own goal.
Spurzem had a couple of highlight-reel scoring strikes, but once Christopher clamped down on the Balers Big Three, it took control.
The Balers, who went winless in the MBL’s upper Gabilan Division last year, have been one of the top teams in the Pacific this season. However, the loss to Christopher was definitely a step backward.
“We just need to put together four quarters,” Balers coach Brendan Sigourney said. “Our passing broke down and that kind of points to a larger issue of conditioning. They’re playing their way into shape.”
Despite the loss, the Balers are not out of the Central Coast Section playoff picture. The Balers trail first-place Robert Louis Stevenson, which won the teams’ first head-to-head matchup, 20-8.
San Benito played RLS in a non-league match last Saturday, and even though it lost 12-7, it was more competitive. The teams play again in a league match on Oct. 7, and the result will go a long way in determining the division champion.
Only the winner of the Pacific earns an automatic berth into the postseason. If the Balers can up their offensive efficiency—“We tend to get stagnant at times,” Sigourney said—there’s no telling how much more they can improve by the end of the season.
Garcia, Spurzem and Werolin pretty much have the green light to shoot from long range, but Sigourney is hoping another player or two steps up and asserts himself as a viable offensive option so the trio doesn’t have to take a lot of shots from beyond six or seven meters.
San Benito has developed a stronger cohesiveness and a superior skill set in almost every phase of the game compared to the team it had a year ago. The Balers are hoping to save their best for last and overtake RLS at the end.
“We have a shot at the league championship if we pull together and play water polo like we know we can,” Garcia said. “If we don’t make it to the playoffs this year, I know the team will in the future. Our JV team has five or six really good freshmen. They all know how to swim well and play pretty good water polo. They’re undefeated in league right now, they’re strong and they have a deep bench. Things are looking up.”
