Spartans fall to Bears
Sierra Pacific ends Strathmore’s run of ESL titles
Strathmore High School boys water polo fell short of getting a share of the East Sequoia League title with a 17-10 loss to Sierra Pacific at home Monday evening.
After close to seven years as the reigning, undefeated champions of the ESL, the Spartans (12-10, 5-2 ESL) met their match in a talented Golden Bears (11-5, 7-0 ESL) team.
“We were undefeated in league for like the past seven years and they’ve finally got enough talent where they’re better than us,” SHS head coach Tim Stadtherr said. “They’re not only using that talent, they’re using that will and that desire to push forward ahead of us. We’re inexperienced and it showed tonight.”
Unlike the last time when the two teams met in Hanford and Sierra Pacific came back to defeat Strathmore 13-11 in the first round of ESL play, the Golden Bears came out hot. Karter Pate led Sierra Pacific with a gamehigh seven goals and scored three goals in each of the first and second quarters.
Down 4-1 after the first quarter, Strathmore found some fire and went goal-for-goal with Sierra Pacific. An early goal from Pate a minute into the second quarter was answered four seconds later by SHS junior Moses Bower. Receiving a pass from teammate Cotter Ashcraft, Bower spun around his defenders to score from about 2-meters out.
Pate responded to Bower’s goal with one of his own, but it took SHS senior Sam Wilkinson less than a minute to score from over 5 meters out on a one-skip shot down a wide open middle to cut the score to 6-3. Pate scored again with 2:57 left in the first half, but Bower scored again on a penalty shot. Sierra Pacific was able to close out the half with an 8-4 lead after a goal from SPHS Lucas Cameron.
“I’ve got two or three that they put so much in it’s almost too much,” Stadtherr said. “And then the others are kind of following their lead, sometimes we need everybody to be thinking for themselves a little bit more and not acquiescing to the other two guys, our main scorers. I need more guys to be
confident and want to be a part of the offense as opposed to ‘I gotta give it to this guy, I gotta give it to that guy.’ It goes back to that inexperience.”
Wilkinson led the Spartans with six goals while Bower and Corey Perigo finished with two apiece.
Sierra Pacific outscored Strathmore 6-4 in the third quarter and took a 14-6 lead, but to their credit, the Spartans stayed in the game and were able to out score the Golden Bears 4-3 in the final quarter thanks to a three-goal quarter from Wilkinson.
Not only is Sierra Pacific the likely Eslchampions, but Stadtherr predicts they will be one of the top three teams in the CIF Central Section Division III playoffs. If they want a shot at the Valley title, Stadtherr knows his team may have to face the Golden Bears once again. Strathmore has only defeated Sierra Pacific once, a 10-9 victory at a tournament in Visalia last month.
“So the fact that we beat them once, we’ve always got that in our back pocket to where we can bring that up and remember that,” he said. “And if we have to face them again we can use that to our advantage hopefully.”
Strathmore has three home games left in the regular season and hosts Bakersfield Christian (33, 3-3 ESL) at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday.