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Warriors open league water polo play with 23-7 win

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

Valley League play for Fallbrook High School's boys water polo team began Sept. 29 with a home match against Escondido and the Warriors were on the winning end of the final score at 23-7.

The Warriors had a 10-1 lead at the end of the first quarter and Fallbrook coach Bill Richardson was already inserting substitutes during the first period.

"Everybody played," Richardson said.

Escondido did not have enough players for a junior varsity game, so members of Fallbrook's junior varsity team played in the varsity game. "I think this definitely gave them confidence," Richardson said.

The varsity players were willing to assist the junior varsity members who were in the pool against varsity opposition. "There's a lot of good encouragement between the players," Richardson said.

Richardson used 21 players in the game compared to Escondido’s seven. The Cougars have eight boys in the program, although one of them was injured in practice the day before. "They're a young team with a lot of first-year players, so they're just starting to rebuild," Richardson said.

Fallbrook's victory improved the Warriors' overall season record to 13-5. Two of those losses were in the Aug. 26-28 Rancho Bernardo Invite Tournament and the other three losses were in the Sept. 24-25 America's Finest Tournament in Coronado. "They're all tough brackets - it’s very competitive," Richardson said of the tournaments.

Fallbrook was the lowest-seeded team in the America's Finest Tournament and thus opened against top-seeded La Jolla. "They were a superior team," Richardson said. "They were clearly better than us, and we learned a lot from that game."

The Vikings' victory was by a 21-5 margin. A thunderstorm delayed the second Sept. 24 game, although Murrieta Valley won that 10-8 contest. "We didn't play very well," Richardson said. "Then the funk continued Saturday morning."

That first Sept. 25 game was an 11-6 loss to Torrey Pines. The brackets then placed Fallbrook against Los Osos High School of Rancho Cucamonga, although the Grizzlies had to drop out of the tournament and the Warriors were given a forfeit win. Fallbrook closed out the tournament with a 17-8 triumph against Rancho Bernardo. "We had a little bit of a bounceback and played a lot better against Rancho Bernardo," Richardson said.

Fallbrook's last non-tournament game before the start of league competition was a 13-12 win Sept. 22 at Poway, who ended up winning the 2020-21 CIF Division I championship. "We came out a little flat and then we just started playing," Richardson said. "Things started going our way."

The Titans held a 4-1 lead after one period, but the Warriors had a 7-6 halftime advantage and led the rest of the game. The score was 13-11 after the Warriors scored their final goal. "They scored a goal and then we held them off," Richardson said.

Other than the CIF tournament, Fallbrook's only remaining tournament of the season is the Oct. 21-23 San Diego Open. The Warriors will close out league play Oct. 20 against Valley Center at the Adams Community Park in Valley Center. Fallbrook's regular season will conclude Oct. 29 at home against Classical Academy, and the CIF playoff seeding and selection meeting will take place Oct. 30.

"Hopefully we'll get back to the way we played against Poway,” Richardson said.

 

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