Boys water polo continues its winning streak against Torrance

On Friday, Oct. 7, Samo boys water polo won another game against Torrance High School,  kicking off their league forcefully with a final score of 20-6. With a 14 point lead, Samo had more confidence to stay positive for the games to come.“We had a horrendous first half, but we still pulled through in the end,” coach Matt Flanders said.Even though the first quarter wasn’t Samo’s best quarter, the team kept their lead for the entire match. In the second half, the score was 3-9, boosting the players' motivation to keep shooting. Many of the goals were shot because Torrance had one of their players ejected for thirty seconds.“Even though we underestimated the first half we still kept on getting better as the game went on,” Peter Lee (’19) said.This was true for the greenies because in the third quarter, Samo set the scoreboard 4-17. Although most of these goals were scored by captain Reaph Whitebloom (’17), who was given unanimous credit as the best player of the game, Samo also had multiple ejections, giving Torrence many opportunities to score.“Honestly, we’ve played better teams with more intensity and came out with a stronger lead," Carlos Edwards-Palomo (’17) said. "I don't think we were in the right mindset." In the final minutes of the game, there were two penalties made on Samo, both considered controversial calls by parents and coach Flanders. In both cases, the ball was only seconds away from being scored but in the end the lack of concentration was not there. “We won today, but now we have to look at future games,” Sawyer Koetters (’19) said.