Boys water polo victorious!

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Created on Friday, 05 October 2012 15:53

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Granite Hill’s boys’ water polo team took first at the pre-season tournament against Porterville High School, Monache High School, and Strathmore High School, Saturday, Sept. 29 at Monache. (Photo by: Briana Keck/October 4, 2012)

Sports

By Braulio Gamboa

The Granite Hills boy’s water polo team traveled to the Monache High School aquatic center on Saturday, Sept. 29.

They battled it out with other four teams to see who would win the Monache Boys’ Junior Varsity Water Polo Tournament.

After a long day, the Grizzly boys earned a hard fought victory.

Monache and Porterville were up first to see who would win the first game of the day. Monache had the home pool advantage and took the win making them go 1-0. Next up, Granite and Strathmore played to find out who would also get off to a good start. Strathmore started off well, leading the Grizzlies 3-0. Granite Hills’ very own Kyle Norman shot for 5 consecutive shots in the second half, and Granite took the win and seemed ready to take on Monache.

“Everyone worked as a team and they were swimming their butts off! Those butterflies really did pay off from practice,” exclaimed junior Briana Keck.

Pumped up and ready to play, the Grizzlies defeated the Marauders 9-8. Both teams kept the score close and scored back-to-back. At the end of the game, the score was tied and had to go into sudden death. In the last seconds of the quarter Granite turned the ball over, but got it back with just enough time for Brad Stailey to set up Clay Congdon, who fired the winning shot to win the game.

Porterville 1-1 and faced off with Granite 2-0 for the tournament championship. Granite Hills’ defense prevented Porterville from playing catch up. Granite’s Goalie, Victor Yanez, blocked multiple shots from inside the five meter to keep the team afloat. During the second half of the game, point guard Stailey drew numerous fouls and found his flats v-helping and getting open.

Learning how to work with new people helped me build my self-confidence.

Like a well-oiled machine, the passes were made from side- to-side, allowing hole-set Congdon to set up and get into position. When the time was right to strike, shots were fired into the cage from the top flats or passed into Congdon, who would draw a foul and let a back hand fly.

Back and forth these two teams kept scoring and keeping the scoreboard close until the fourth quarter. The Grizzlies were up by four points and kept it on the scoreboard until the game finished.

“I think we played better than before; our team is continuously getting better,” said senior Brad Stailey.

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Editor: Hannah Vehrs

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Final Editor: Madison Rice