Boys water polo wins another victory against Chadwick High School

On Tuesday, Aug. 20, Samo won a close game against Chadwick High School with a final score of 10-9.“It was a really hard game to win, we were lucky we improved so much since the beginning of the year,” Quinlan Plukas (’19) said. According to Kingman Lee (’18), because Samo was so equally matched with Chadwick, it made it an exciting game and kept viewers on the edge of their seats until the last minute of the game. The game was nearly tied until the last couple seconds of the game when the starting goalie, Richie Smith (’17), made a save preventing the game from going into overtime.“Everything that needed to be executed was executed,” coach Matt Flanders said.Halfway through the game, Sawyer Koetters (’19) was put back in the water after receiving a red card in the previous game against the Palisades Charter High School.“We came into the game knowing they were going to put up a fight but didn’t expect it to be so close,” Alex Weng (’19) said.Despite the addition and help of a few players, Samo struggled against Chadwick’s offense and at the start of the fourth quarter, Chadwick began to score on Samo relentlessly. In addition, Samo received a foul and had to play five players to Chadwick’s six. “Once we got to the end, we slacked a little bit. My favorite goal [was] shot by Dean Carr,” Peter Lee (’19) said. Dean Carr (’18), shot halfway across the pool, making it into the upper right corner of the goal for the win. By the end of the fourth quarter, Samo came out on top despite the pressure placed on them from their opponent. Due to the well matched skill levels of the team’s, Samo learned a lot about what they needed to work on and hope to execute those practices in future games. Although Samo fought through some tiring plays and received a few fouls, the team looks forward to playing more teams like Chadwick and pulling off more wins.