On Thursday, October 1, the varsity boys water polo team defeated the Monta Vista Matadors in a league game at home, bouncing back from a tough loss at Gunn on Tuesday and bringing their league record to 4-1.

The Eagles’ defense and offense started off strongly with sophomore Eric Warmoth putting Los Altos on the board with two goals in the first quarter. With only half of the first quarter still remaining, sophomore Kyle Sandell drew an ejection from set and senior captain Jim Hollingworth finished with a shot that skipped past the goalie’s arms and into the back of the net. Monta Vista returned with a goal, but the quarter ended with a half court goal from junior Nick Rodriguez in the final seconds to make the score 4-1 for the Eagles.

“We came out really strong like we wanted to because we have had some other games where we had slower starts, but in this game we came out intensely and put the game away early,” sophomore Eric Warmoth said.

The second quarter began with tie in the starting sprint for the ball, but the Eagles won the  possession by securing the jump ball. A few positions in, Jim caught a long cross-court pass from Nick and buried it in the back of the cage. Kyle added one more score, making it 6-3 at the end of the half.

The third quarter was a back-and-forth swimming battle, with both teams trying to capitalize on the other’s mistakes and turnovers. Junior Ryan Fisse added a goal of his own on a power play to make the score 7-3 in favor of Los Altos.

Los Altos put the game away in the last quarter beginning with Jim, who patiently attacked center cage using up the shot clock and ripping a high-corner shot that barred in. When the final buzzer sounded, the Eagles were on top 9-3.

As has been the case in many of their previous games, Los Altos found offensive contributions from many players, instead of one attacker dominating play.

“We played really well as a team, but once again it was really nice how we managed to spread out all of our scoring, so I think we did quite well and I am happy with the results,” junior Ryan Fisse said.

While the offensive output was impressive, the team was also happy with its dominant defense, led by sophomore goalie Connor Brett.

“I was really happy with our defense,” head coach Seth Tasman said. “We held them to three goals that all came in the first half, and we made great adjustments on defense in the second half and played a great game.”

Los Altos plays at Santa Cruz on Friday, October 2, in a non-league matchup. Their next home game is against Palo Alto on Tuesday, October 6.