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Tribe Water Polo dominates tournament

The Tribe Water Polo Club’s 18-and-under boys team won the Crescenta Valley Tournament played June 23-24 at Crescenta Valley High School.

The Fallbrook-based squad won all five of its tournament games, including two matches over the Cerritos club which had defeated Tribe in a tournament three weeks earlier.

“Our offense was ahead of where I thought it would be and our defense came around for us,” said Tribe Water Polo coach Bob Lamont.

In the Villa Park Tournament June 2-3 Tribe scored 47 goals during the five games while allowing 45. In the Crescenta Valley Tournament matches Tribe totaled 76 goals and allowed only 27. “Our defense is turning the corner, I think,” Lamont said.

Tribe opened the Crescenta Valley Tournament with three bracket games June 23. The opener was a 15-1 victory over La Canada. “The 1 is more impressive than the 15. We’re starting to play defense all the time, and that makes a coach smile,” Lamont said.

“Good team effort. Everybody played. I got production from my youngest, newest player,” Lamont said of the La Canada game.

That newcomer is Geoffrey Jameson, who contributed two goals. The scoring was spread among all of the team’s regulars. “Everybody produced and played well,” Lamont said.

Tribe then faced Cerritos and earned a 14-10 victory. “That was a good game,” Lamont said. “They brought truly the second-strongest team there.”

In the Villa Park Tournament Tribe lost 10-8 to Cerritos after the teams were tied at seven goals apiece entering the fourth period. “It was good to turn it around this time and beat them,” Lamont said.

Tribe led 4-3 after the first quarter, 8-4 at halftime, and 12-5 after three periods. The 5-2 Cerritos advantage in the fourth quarter was due to Tribe inserting reserves rather than to a loss of dominance. “We were playing everybody in the fourth,” Lamont said.

Two-meter player Stott Bushnell scored five goals against Cerritos.

Tribe’s final June 23 game was against COLA, which stands for City of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Unified School District does not field high school water polo teams. “They were pretty much a recreational team,” Lamont said. “That was not much of a game.”

Tribe’s 15-6 win over COLA enabled Tribe to clinch their bracket. Their semifinal match June 24 was against Notre Dame, which finished second in the other bracket.

Tribe led Notre Dame 9-2 after the first quarter and finished with a 19-3 victory. “We handled them pretty easily,” Lamont said. “We never looked back on that one. We got ahead early and played everybody.”

In the other semifinal Cerritos defeated Crescenta Valley, which had won the other bracket. The rematch in the finals between Tribe and Cerritos was 4-1 in Tribe’s favor after one period, 7-3 at halftime, 11-6 after three quarters, and 13-7 at the final whistle. “We had pretty good control,” Lamont said.

Lamont felt that Tribe played better in the championship match against Cerritos than in the bracket game. “This was a game that we played better defense,” he said. “We shut them down, and that’s really encouraging.”

Nick Fast led the offense with four goals in the championship match.

Tribe’s Jacob Pril led all players in the tournament with 16 goals. Russell Barrett scored ten goals for Tribe. Bushnell played in only the three Saturday games but scored nine goals in

those three games, and Fast and Kevin Wu also put nine balls apiece into the net. Kai Bowman scored eight goals and also led the team with 14 assists.

Lamont added that Matt Pril and Garret Bishop were defensive standouts during the tournament. Tribe platooned goalkeepers Ryan Helling and Gerson Esteban.

“This was a good win for us,” Lamont said of the tournament.

 

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