Warriors defeat Caimans in water polo league opener

Fallbrook High School's girls water polo team opened Valley League play Dec. 18 at home against Classical Academy and defeated the Caimans by a 12-5 margin. The result gave Fallbrook a 7-3 overall record for the season.

"Our defense is starting to really come together and do well," said Fallbrook coach Sean Redmond.

The Warriors' 2018-19 season began Nov. 14 with a 14-7 loss at Helix.

"You need some defense," said Redmond. "It was on both sides, too."

Redmond noted that players figure situations out in the first game of the season.

"We were just beginning to kind of respond to the other team," Redmond said. "Our defense has grown a lot since then. With the exception of El Camino, nobody scored more than eight points on us."

The Nov. 30 home loss to El Camino was preceded by a Nov. 27 victory at Del Norte. Fallbrook defeated the Nighthawks in an 8-7 contest.

"We never had the lead at all and with 1:10 left we scored the go-ahead goal," Redmond said.

Fallbrook tied the game with 1:42 remaining before a goal by junior Sophia Wallace 32 seconds later finalized the score in the Warriors' favor.

The league opener demonstrated that the Warriors could dominate an opponent. The game against Del Norte indicated that Fallbrook can do well in a game where one goal makes the difference.

"That was encouraging to see that we could hang in there and fight all the way through," Redmond said. "I think that showed the girls what they're capable of."

Del Norte was seeded fifth in the 2017-18 CIF Open Division playoffs.

"It shows that that type of a team and that caliber of a program we can compete with it," Redmond said.

Wallace is one of six returning starters from the 2017-18 Warriors; Ella Hearn was the only starting senior last season. This year the Fallbrook varsity consists of three seniors, four juniors, one sophomore and one freshman.

"It wasn't necessarily turnout," Redmond said of having only nine players on his varsity.

Approximately 30 girls are in the program, including the junior varsity and novice squads, and Redmond opted to give some of his younger players game time experience on the junior varsity.

"We just want to get them that playing opportunity," Redmond said.

In the absence of a 20-second exclusion penalty, seven players from each team are in the pool at one time. A player with three exclusions is "majored," or removed for the rest of the game.

"We have to be careful," Redmond said of having only two substitutes.

In one game the Warriors already had one player who was majored while two others had two exclusions.

"We just learn how to play great defense and hope the officials don't make a bad call," Redmond said.

El Camino, the 2017-18 CIF Division I champions, had a 16-8 victory at Fallbrook's expense.

"We were actually in that game," Redmond said.

The Wildcats led by three at halftime and by five at the end of the third period. Fallbrook scored the first goal of the fourth quarter to narrow the deficit to four.

"All of a sudden they just stepped it up and took control of the game at that point," Redmond said.

An 8-5 victory Dec. 4 at Poway preceded Rancho Bernardo Tournament play for the Warriors. The tournament was scheduled for Dec. 6-8. Water polo matches will be played in rain in the absence of lightning, since the players in the pool will be wet anyway, but a thunderstorm creates a safety risk of being in the water.

Fallbrook traveled to Westview for the Warriors' planned Dec. 6 game, but the match was postponed due to the storm. That gave the Warriors two Dec. 7 tournament games at Westview and eventually two Dec. 8 contests at Rancho Bernardo.

Fallbrook opened tournament play with a 9-3 victory over Canyon Crest. The halftime score was 5-3. "We shut them out the second half," Redmond said.

Naomi Wood, who is Fallbrook's goalkeeper, made six saves against the Ravens. "A lot of it was our defense," Redmond said.

The team had 24 steals against Canyon Crest. "We had quite a few steals in that," Redmond said.

Fallbrook's second Dec. 7 game was an 8-2 loss to Westview.

"They definitely played better than we did," said Redmond. "They were more aggressive than we were."

Both of Fallbrook's goals were in the second quarter.

"They just shut us down the first, third and fourth period," Redmond said.

Redmond and Vista coach Dave Spence both have youth club programs, so ninth-graders often join the Fallbrook and Vista teams with water polo skills. Fallbrook's first Dec. 8 game was a 12-7 triumph over Vista.

"A lot of it had to do with our speed," Redmond said. "We're definitely a better swimming team than his team was. I think that's one of the things that helps us."

Wood recorded only three saves against the Panthers.

"That I think shows that our defense did a great job in not allowing them to shoot," Redmond said. "Our defense was great."

Spence's daughter had five of the seven Vista goals.

"We weren't able to shut her down, but I think we frustrated the rest of the team and her supporting cast," Redmond said.

The result put Fallbrook in the fifth-place game against Corona, whose nickname is also the Panthers. The final score was 18-3 in Fallbrook's favor.

"It was probably as a team the best game we had played," Redmond said.

The Warriors had 28 steals against Corona.

"That was something that I didn't think we anticipated," Redmond said.

Fallbrook drew seven exclusions and scored on three of those power plays. The Warriors only allowed Corona three extra player opportunities, and the Panthers did not score on any of those.

The result gave the Warriors fifth place in the tournament. Redmond had called up two of his junior varsity players for the tournament, giving him a squad of 11.

The final pre-league game for Fallbrook took place Dec. 11 when the Warriors traveled to The Wave in Vista for a match against Rancho Buena Vista.

"We shut them out in the first period and they only scored one in the second," Redmond said.

Redmond used his substitutes in the second half. "They held their own," he said.

The final score was 14-5.

When the halftime buzzer sounded Dec. 18 Fallbrook had a 6-1 lead against Classical Academy. Redmond rested two starters in the second half.

"I don't think we lost really much with the subs in there," Redmond said.

The Caimans outscored the Warriors by a 3-1 margin in the third period.

"I think the third period we just kind of had a lapse," Redmond said. "We cured that."

Four different players scored goals for the Warriors. Paris Dowden and Wallace each made four shots against Classical Academy.

"We definitely spread it around," Redmond said. "The assists kind of were spread out."

On many plays the Fallbrook girl with the ball could have taken a shot but passed to a teammate with a better chance of scoring.

"That was pretty cool to see," Redmond said.

Natalie Wood did not score a goal but had three assists and 12 steals.

"That was huge because that took away potentially 12 goals," Redmond said. "She just played solid defense. She definitely frustrated any players she was guarding."

The team had a total of 31 steals against the Caimans.

"It was pretty much a team effort," Redmond said.

Fallbrook's next league match will be at home Jan. 17 against Escondido.

"Hopefully we can just keep it rolling," Redmond said.