By Ryan Ulrich
Staff Writer
In their fourth Bay League game of the season, Mira Costa water polo was able to win a physical and mental battle to beat out Palos Verdes at Palos Verdes High School on Wednesday.
Costa won 14-12 and they had to play their hardest to finish off the Sea Kings. The Mustangs were able to start off the game strong and end the first quarter with a score of 5-1. Junior driver Jake Miller-Tolt scored three of the goals. One goal apiece from senior driver Ed Jeon and junior whole set Finn Pardon helped the Mustangs take the lead.
“I’m really happy with today’s win,” coach Jon Reichardt said. “This win just goes to show we can play terribly and still win games.”
During the second quarter, Mira Costa was far in the lead with a score of 8-3 and hardly allowed Palos verdes to score. Although Mira Costa was ahead, the team was being less aggressive than usual and senior driver and team captain Andrew Todd was taken out for the rest of the game due to three ejections.
“It hurt to have Andrew out of the game because he is one of the team leaders,” Miller-Tolt said. “Andrew is also one of our leading scorers so the game could have gone differently if he was playing.”
After the half, the Mustangs started to lose momentum, allowing Palos Verdes to score two goals right away and three more goals in the quarter due to poor defense. The Mustangs ended the third quarter with a score of 12-8 for Costa.
“When we switched sides, Palos Verdes fans started to rally, which sort of startled us,” senior goalie Nick Dale said. “After that, they started scoring more goals which sort of snowballed into a close game.”
In the fourth quarter, Costa’s poor defense allowed three quick goals. However, this time Costa would have to battle it out for the win. Jeon answered back with 2 goals, which sealed the win for Costa.
“I think we could have played a lot better, but I’m happy we got the win at an away game,” Miller-Tolt said. “I think to improve as a team we just have to learn to deal with crowds and then we’ll be more confident.”
The Mustangs’ next game is today in the South Bay Tournament. Costa is 9-3 overall and 4-0 in Bay League.
“I think because we have had such a good record so far it will give us an edge in the next game,” Reichardt said.
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