The varsity boys water polo team defeated the Palo Alto High School Vikings 10-6 today, September 27. The team had a solid start in the beginning of the game that carried them to victory.

“The first quarter was the key because it created the momentum for the rest of the game,” junior Ryan Seltzer said. “The offense was executed really well.”

Los Altos took the lead quickly, scoring three goals within the first few minutes without any answer by Palo Alto. By the end of the first half, the team was ahead by a 5-1 score.

The third quarter was remained neutral, with both teams scoring two points each.

In the middle of the fourth quarter, captain senior Ian McColl was ejected from the game. Paly saw an opening in the Eagles’ loss, and scored 3 consecutive goals. However, Los Altos stood strong and put away two more goals to win the game 10-6.

During the course of the game, junior Sam Lisbonne and seniors Paul Bergevin and Drew Lytle all put two in the back of the net while senior Mark Schreiber scored one. Ian lead the team in scoring with a total of three goals.

Despite being down for the entire game, the Vikings were no pushover for Los Altos. The team is ranked high in the league and is backed by many skilled players such as captain senior Bret Pinsker, who has played on varsity for all four years of his high school career.

However, Los Altos proved triumphant by persevering on defense throughout the entire match and kept a solid lead thanks to the many saves made by seniors Afsheen Khosraviani and Cameron Putnam.

“Palo Alto is probably one of the top teams in the league,” senior Drew Lytle said. “Sam did really well against [Pinsker] and the defense shut them down. We stepped up on all parts as a team.”

Although Los Altos has had to deal with controversial calls in its last few games (notably in its matchup against Mountain View High School), the team believes that the game was fair this time.

“The quality of the game was not affected by the refs at all, [which made] it a great game for us,” junior Surya Ram said.

The team hopes to ride this momentum into the Central Coast Section (CCS) vs. North Coast Section (NCS) tournament starting tomorrow, September 28, at Saint Francis High School. The Eagles’ first round match is against San Ramon Valley High School.