Despite a promising match, Buena boys water polo lost to San Marcos High School 11-3 in the Channel League finals, Oct. 23. Even with multiple obstacles placed in the way of a Buena victory, the Bulldogs fought hard and played a tough game, finishing their season in second place for the league before heading to CIF finals.
The Bulldog’s spirits ran high as they swam, readying themselves to take on San Marcos for the third time this season, hoping for a three-peat.
“The previous two wins against San Marcos were close,” junior goalie Mack Munger said. “We came into the game expecting that we were already in their heads.”
With energy radiating from the Rio Mesa High School stands, the referee blew the whistle to start the game. With the Royals winning the first sprint and possession of the ball, the Bulldogs were already at a disadvantage.
After San Marcos made their first goal, Buena’s quick response resulted in a point from number 99, junior Finn Lange, which quickly shifted the momentum of the game and gave the Bulldogs hope of making it past the Royals’ strong defense.
With one goal and a missed attempt made by San Marcos in the last seconds, the Bulldogs lost the first quarter 2-1.
“We weren’t mentally prepared for what they [brought] us,” number 11 and junior Wyatt Munger said. “They came into the game wanting to kill and…we underestimated them.”
Number eight, junior Nate Johnson, won the second sprint, starting off an intense quarter with lots of back and forth in the first few minutes. Taking advantage of their first ejection, San Marcos scored, profiting off the resulting tip above the goalie’s head.
In an event that changed the course of the game, a previously scored point was taken away from Buena due to clock errors; tensions were high in the water, resulting in multiple injured players on both teams.
“We did play well,” W. Munger said. “But when they took away our point, it shut our energy down, it shut us down and we didn’t bounce back from that,”
Buena’s past winning streak and the retracted point seemed to bring stress to the team, causing the Bulldogs to miss their six on five opportunities twice.
With two more points on the board and lots more energy from San Marcos, Buena took a timeout, frustrated with the current situation. After another Royal point scored, San Marcos fumbled another drawn exclusion possession, leaving the first half with a Royals lead of 6-1.
“It’s hard,” head coach Tom Davis said. “We tried to go movement, we weren’t getting calls. We tried to go post up, we weren’t getting calls.”
Buena took the third quarter sprint, leading to a goal scored by junior and number 2 River Davis, starting the second half strong for the Bulldogs. But, with two missed points in the same shot clock and a missed ejection opportunity, Buena could not seem to score no matter how they played.
Fumbling, the Bulldogs used their last ejection to throw the ball at the San Marcos defense, ending the third quarter with another loss, 8-2 Royals.
“None of us were as hyped as we should have been,” W. Munger said. “None of us were as energetic as we should have been.”
With low morale from the team, the fourth quarter kicked off. San Marcos started with the ball, but Buena eventually got it back, when junior and number 14 Jack Pointner earned the team an ejection that ultimately did not end in a point.
“The mentality [at this point] wasn’t to win the game,” Johnson said. “Our focus was more on how we [could] improve from our past quarters… The score wasn’t even in [our heads].”
A goal from Johnson during an exclusion brought some hope to the Bulldogs, however this hope was eventually crushed by another missed shot, allowing San Marcos to slip two more goals through the goalies’ hands.
“Mack Munger did a great job in goal for us,” Davis said. “Unfortunately we didn’t get a lot out of our field players.”
As the bulldog fans started heckling San Marcos, the Royals used the energy as fuel, drawing a five meter and scoring yet again.
After a double ejection from both the Royals and the Bulldogs was missed for both teams, Buena succumbed to the pressure, allowing for San Marcos to steal the ball from the Bulldogs in the remaining possessions.
With 45 seconds left, Buena went for a final shot, fatally missing and ending the game with a rough 11-3 loss.
With a chance to bounce back from the disappointing game, the Bulldogs play in their first CIF game Thursday, Oct. 31, hoping to bring back the chemistry they had all season leading up to this point.
“Going into round one of CIF, we’re going to do great,” W. Munger said. “We got this far, so why not go farther? Even if we lose, we need to go out with a bang.”
