The boys water polo team triumphed over the Hillsdale Knights in a decisive 11-6 victory on Wednesday evening.
M-A won the sprint, gaining possession early. Senior goalkeeper Joseph Tompkins anchored the cage early, blocking a close shot from the Knights. The Bears put the first points on the board, as senior Kanoa Lee slung a skipping bounce shot into the bottom-left corner with 6:16 left in the first quarter.
Hillsdale struggled to break through M-A’s heavy pressure, with sophomore Chase Wescott forcing turnovers. After a missed attempt from Lee, senior Navid Riahi tapped in a deflected rebound right on the doorstep of Hillsdale’s goal. Shortly after, the Bears made another shot, extending their lead to 3-0 with 3:58 left.
“Compared to other games, we were able to cooperate more as a team. We really were able to support each other,” Tompkins said. “We were always cheering for each other this game, which was really good.”
Although the Knights managed to score off a late man-up opportunity, M-A closed out the first quarter holding a 3-1 lead.
Heading into the second quarter, both teams ramped up their defensive intensity. Hillsdale looked to close the gap, but Tompkins stood strong, deflecting multiple outside attempts and rising for a two-handed stop.
M-A matched the pressure on the other end, with junior Matthew Zadeh and sophomore Julian Pang combining for a double-team to force a shot-clock violation and regain possession. Following a timeout, Tompkins received the restart and cleared the ball up to the offense to spark a drive. Pang swam across to dish the ball over to C. Wescott, who got dragged underwater to draw an ejection against Hillsdale.
Capitalizing on the six-on-five advantage, Lee fired a hard shot that was met by a diving stop from the Knights’ goalkeeper. C. Wescott broke away on a fast counterattack with only six seconds remaining, drawing a five-meter penalty and skipping the shot past the goalkeeper’s hands to send the Bears into halftime ahead 4-1.
M-A dove into the second half with explosive offensive energy. Senior Vesta Kassayan* won the sprint, and while Hillsdale tried to answer back, Tompkins denied a point-blank shot. Capitalizing on the stop, senior Ryan Junkin-Pisani broke away on a one-on-one counter with the goalkeeper, burying his shot to push the lead to 5-1 with 5:16 left in the quarter.
Riahi powered through a double-team in the center to score, followed quickly by a strike from senior Qasim Damji on the right side to extend the lead to 7-1. Although the Knights managed to find the corner to end their scoring drought, sophomore Johnny Andeen answered right back, lofting a clean shot over the Knights’ heads, advancing the score to 8-3.
Hillsdale was able to sneak in one more goal before the buzzer, but M-A headed into the final quarter with a commanding 8-3 lead.
The Bears kept their foot on the gas entering the final period. Just 21 seconds in, Riahi was pulled underwater, drawing a five-meter penalty and smashing the shot into the cage. M-A stayed on the attack as Riahi attempted another goal, but Lee’s second-chance attempt rattled off the crossbar.
“I think we need to improve our passing game and our shots on goal because I noticed a lot of times our shots were missing the cage, and our passes were getting picked off,” Riahi said.
Hillsdale immediately went on a counterattack down the right side, and although Tompkins made a diving save, the Knights collected the loose ball and scored on the putback to make it 9-4 with 3:33 left.
M-A struck back immediately. Andeen received a pass inside, quickly spun past his defender, and fired into the net with 3:08 on the clock. Less than a minute later, Zadeh drove toward the center to pull two defenders, passing the ball to junior Max Weiss for him to drill a shot into the top-left corner.
Although the Knights tallied two late goals in the last minute, Tompkins ran out the final seconds on the restart to lock in the 11-6 victory.
The Bears’ organic style of play and ecstatic team energy made for an entertaining and uplifting game, boosting M-A’s confidence for their next faceoff.
“I’m hoping that this taught a lot of players to just have more fun with games,” Lee said.
The Bears will travel away to face the Aragon Dons on Monday at 5 p.m.
*Vesta Kassayan is a journalist for the M-A Chronicle.
