Warriors stay competitive against strong girls water polo opponents

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

Fallbrook High School has not had an easy girls water polo schedule this season, so a 19-12 loss Jan. 18 at Poway gave the Warriors a Palomar League record of 0-3 while a non-league 17-7 defeat Jan. 20 against La Costa Canyon at the Magdalena Ecke Family YMCA in Encinitas left Fallbrook with a 4-8 overall record.

“They’re learning and there was no quit or give up in any of them,” said Fallbrook coach Sean Redmond.

“They are improving and they’re starting to play much better as a group,” Redmond said. “The record doesn’t show it.”

An 18-8 loss Jan. 11 at Rancho Bernardo gave the Warriors two league losses for the season, which is one league loss more than the Warriors had in their entire seven Valley League seasons between 2014-15 and 2020-21. “In our league we have some of the top teams in San Diego,” Redmond said.

“It makes it very competitive,” Redmond said. “They’ve done well in keeping up with it.”

Rancho Bernardo scored all seven first-quarter goals and held a 10-2 halftime lead. The score was 14-4 after three quarters, and the teams split the eight fourth-period goals.

“That first quarter was kind of a shocker, but the girls stepped up,” Redmond said. “We stayed within one to two points of them per quarter for the second, third, and fourth quarter.”

Redmond believes the Warriors’ ability to stay nearly even with the Broncos over the game’s final three quarters indicates Fallbrook’s ability to compete with premier teams. “I think they learned they’re capable of playing very well, but we just have to come out hard and fast,” he said.

Las Palmas Pool in National City was the site of the Jan. 13 game between Fallbrook and Eastlake which ended as a 12-6 Titans victory. Eastlake scored all four first-period goals, but Fallbrook narrowed the margin to 4-3 by halftime. The Titans had a 7-5 advantage before scoring five of the six fourth-quarter goals.

“I have to give credit to Eastlake and their girls and what they were able to do,” Redmond said.

Fallbrook traveled to The Wave in Vista for a Jan. 14 contest against Vista High School. “It actually kind of went back and forth,” Redmond said.

Fallbrook held leads of 4-3 after one quarter, 7-5 at halftime, and 11-8 when the buzzer sounded to end the third period. The Warriors’ eventual margin of victory was 15-10.

“In the second half they were able to come out,” Redmond said. “It took them a little bit to get warmed up and get going.”

Six different Fallbrook players scored. “That kind of spreads it out, which was nice,” Redmond said.

Kela Kendall scored six of those goals, Ava Dowden had four goals, Grace Goode had two successful shots, and one goal apiece was scored by Alexis Fieri, Marissa Pearce, and Kacey Sanchez. Goode led the team with four assists while Pearce recorded four steals.

Poway, whose nickname is also the Titans, had a 10-4 halftime lead. “The first half kind of hurt us,” Redmond said.

Each team scored four times in the third period before the Titans had a 5-4 advantage in the final quarter.

La Costa Canyon was ranked second in the CIF San Diego Section when the Mavericks played Fallbrook. “They played well and were able to hang in there,” Redmond said of his team.

Four different Fallbrook players scored, but the shooting was spread out. “In this game everybody got involved and had at least one attempt,” Redmond said.