Tribe Water Polo 2-3 in first summer tournament

The Tribe Water Polo Club’s 18-and-under boys team won two of five games at its first tournament of the summer.

“It was a good tournament,” said Tribe Water Polo coach Bob Lamont.

The Villa Park Tournament June 2-3 saw Tribe score a total of 47 goals during the five games while allowing 45. “The offense was ahead of where I thought it would be,” said Lamont, who added that the team was working on its defense.

The tournament matches were played at Villa Park and at Canyon High School, both of which are in Anaheim. Tribe started off with a 9-1 loss to Regency. “Very good physical game. That was a real eye-opener for us as to the kind of competition up there,” Lamont said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us, that’s for sure.”

The middle of three June 2 games was an 18-5 win over Sunny Hills. “We worked very good on defense,” Lamont said. “Just everything clicked on that one.”

The final June 2 game was a 13-9 loss to Irvine which was a mixed assessment of the Tribe club. On one hand Tribe was held scoreless throughout the first half, but that means that the Fallbrook club was able to adapt after halftime. “We made some adjustments and I was happy to see the offense pick up after that,” Lamont said.

Both Sunday matches were tied 7-7 entering the fourth period. “Those were both very good games,” Lamont said.

The first game ended as a 10-8 loss to Cerritos while Tribe concluded the tournament with an 11-8 win over Eagle.

Jacob Pril led Tribe with 16 goals scored in the tournament. “Very quick on the transition game, very strong swimmer, and a joy to watch going down the pool,” Lamont said of Pril.

Nick Fast added eight goals for Tribe and Kevin Wu scored six goals.

Goalkeeper Ryan Helling had eight saves against Eagle, and during the tournament he blocked two penalty shots. “Ryan did a very good job for us,” Lamont said.

Lamont also noted the playmaking performance of Kai Bowman. “He certainly was our best setup man for making passes and got those guys in position to score,” Lamont said.