Owls Outlast LA Valley for First Win Over Monarchs in Six Years
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
LA Valley (3-9, 0-2) | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 11 |
|
Citrus (12-10, 1-1) | 5 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 13 |
Glendora, CA - For the last six years, there has been no tougher opponent for the Citrus College Men's Water Polo team than Los Angeles Valley College. In that span, the Owls owned at least one victory over the other three Western State Conference teams, but hadn't beaten the Monarchs since 2009. Citrus finally snapped that streak on Wednesday afternoon when they outlasted a scrappy LA Valley squad 13-11.
The Monarchs would come out and score the game's first two goals to take an early 2-0 lead 54 seconds in. The Owls finally got on track by scoring four straight with goals from sophomores James Adams, Kristopher Williams, Daniel Velazquez and freshman Jonathan Wong to go up 4-3. Valley would cut it to one with on a goal with 4:08 left in the first, but sophomore James Cano scored a 6-on-5 goal with one second remaining to give Citrus a 5-3 lead after one.
In the second, the two teams matched each other's output with three goals apiece. It was the same in the third, as each team scored twice, giving the Owls a 19-8 edge heading into the fourth quarter. Valley would come out and score the first two goals of the fourth to tie the game up at 10-10. Wong would briefly put the Owls back up by one with 5:24 to go, but the Monarchs tied the game back up with 3:33 to go.
On the very next trip down the pool, the Owls drew an exclusion giving them yet another 6-on-5 chance. With time literally running out on the power play, Velazquez found Adams inside who then scored putting Citrus up 12-11 with 3:02 to go. With the game still in the balance, the Owls got an insurance goal from Wong with 1:40 to go. Sophomore goalie Drake Santos show poise in the cage down the stretch with four of his 13 total saves coming in the final eight minutes of action.
In the win, Wong led all scorers with four goals. Velazquez and Adams each scored three times, while Velazquez also handed out a game high four assists and draw a team high three exclusions.
With the win, Citrus improves to 12-10 on the season and 1-1 in WSC play. The Owls will take 10 days off from action before resuming play a week from Saturday at the Fullerton Mini-Tournament.
