By Matt Phelps
Mercer Island Reporter
The Mercer Island boys water polo team continued its dominance of in-state teams Friday at Edgebrook Country Club, defeating Castaway Polo 16-7. Despite the final score the game was not all Mercer Island as CPA outscored the Islanders during the second quarter and played tough during the second half.
“We have had that problem all season,” said Islander coach Adam Massmann. “We seem to pick when we want to play and we need to work that out.”
Mercer Island began the game with a barrage of shots and goals leading to an 8-0 lead. Islander Theo Danciu got his team on the board just 44 seconds into the game. A save and subsequent outlet pass reaching three quarters of the pool by Mercer Island goal keeper John Ahalt, led to a Quinn Sterling goal. Islander Henry Fox’s steal and break away goal capped the opening run by Mercer Island.
“During the first quarter we came out pretty fast,” said Fox. “But we have little things on offense that we need to work on. We can get a lot better.”
But CPA would show some drive by scoring the final two goals of the quarter.
Mercer Island would utilize the concept of team with a three past goal by Fox to open the second quarter, followed by another Fox goal on a spin move. But the rest of the quarter would belong to Castaway as the team scored three unanswered goals to bring the score back to 10-4.
“We let down our guard for a little while,” said Islander Kennan Adams. “It shows that we have plenty of work to do and we are not where we want to be.”
The Islanders struggled to regroup after half time, outscoring CPA by just a 3-2 margin during the third period. Two of those Mercer Island goals came off the hand of Danciu.
Another three pass goal opened the fourth quarter for the Islanders as Karchy Somogyuari gained a steal, threw a long pass to Adams who assisted Sterling on the goal.
Mercer Island would close out the game with two more goals.
“We have put in a lot of hard work this season but we have more to go,” said Massmann. “We have to stay focused the entire game and not become complacent.”
Mercer Island has two weeks before the big part of the 2008 campaign begins with the Washington state water polo tournament and then the San Diego Invitational. On the season Mercer Island has just one loss and one tie during 12 games played. The Islanders will face an old rival in Newport at Edgebrook at 4 p.m. tomorrow.
