Warriors defeat Escondido, Ramona to begin water polo league play

Fallbrook High School's boys water polo team entered Valley League play with a 6-11 overall record, but the Warriors opened league competition with victories over Escondido and Ramona.

"We're starting to work our way back to .500," said Fallbrook coach Bill Richardson.

The pre-league competition included two tournaments as well as nonleague road matches.

"We played a pretty tough pre-league season schedule," Richardson said. "We were very competitive."

The Warriors defeated Escondido in a 14-3 contest Oct. 2 at Jim Stone Pool in Escondido.

"We put some things together," Richardson said. "It was nice to see."

Fallbrook had a 10-0 lead midway through the third quarter.

"They were working on a shutout. It kind of got away from them," Richardson said.

Some of the Cougars' goals were against Fallbrook substitutes.

"Everybody got to play," Richardson said.

During the late portion of the game Fallbrook's defensive emphasis was on drills rather than on the margin of victory. The defense limited the Escondido goals when necessary.

"They did a great job of staying in control of the game," Richardson said.

Five different Fallbrook players had goals against the Cougars.

"The goals have been spread around fairly evenly," Richardson said.

The Oct. 9 contest against Ramona was Fallbrook's second home game of the year and the Warriors' first league home match.

"It's always nice to play at home other than our pool, which creates problems for both teams," Richardson said.

Fallbrook has a shallow-deep pool.

"It's really difficult to get someone to come play here unless they already are used to it," Richardson said.

Ramona is the only other Valley League team with an on-campus pool, and the Bulldogs also have a shallow-deep pool.

The final score was 15-11.

"It was closer early," Richardson said.

The Bulldogs held a 3-2 lead during the first quarter before Fallbrook scored the final two goals of the period for a 4-3 advantage. The Warriors increased their margin to 10-4 by halftime.

"Just had a good period," Richardson said of the second quarter.

Part of that was due to the Ramona goalkeeper being in the shallow end of the pool.

"We were actually shooting on the shallow cage," Richardson said.

Richardson also made a defensive adjustment to create a better matchup against the Bulldogs' top offensive player.

"I think that was the biggest thing," Richardson said.

Fallbrook's lead was 12-10 when the buzzer sounded to end the third quarter.

"We were pretty flat in the third," Richardson said. "They actually won the second half."

Five different Fallbrook players scored goals against Ramona.

"It was all around a team effort," Richardson said.

The Warriors will conclude league play Oct. 23 against Valley Center at the Adams Community Park pool in Valley Center and Oct. 30 against Classical Academy at the Washington Park pool in Escondido.

"That will tell us where we're at," Richardson said.