Panthers finish off Marauders
Porterville wins 16-11
Porterville High School’s pool was surrounded by fans in orange and green, as well as blue and gold, to watch the Porterville boys water polo team take on crosstown rival in Thursday’s final EYL game of the season.
Porterville High School’s pool was surrounded by fans in orange and green, as well as blue and gold, to watch the Porterville boys water polo team take on crosstown rival in Wednesday’s final East Yosemite League game of the season.
With the EYL title already in their pocket, the Panthers (25-3, 8-0) beat the Marauders 16-11 to secure bragging rights as the best team in Porterville and hold on to their undefeated EYL record.
“It’s always big,” PHS head coach Mickey Goularte said about the rivalry game. “It’s like playing for the city. It doesn’t matter what your win-loss record is, whenever Monache and Porterville meet that’s the most important thing.”
Scoring went back and forth in the first quarter with PHS senior Grant Snyder scoring two goals in the first three minutes before MHS JT Lee scored off an assist Xavier Palacios. Less than a minute later MHS Nick Taylor scored over a Porterville defender to tie the game at 2. With two minutes left in the game Snyder blocked a Monache pass, the ball glided over to Josh Halopoff who hit Snyder for a fast break and a score. But with four seconds left on the clock Palacios scored to tie the game at 3 before the buzzer rang out.
“I felt good, I had a lot of energy,” Snyder said. “We all felt really rested so it was good to see how we’re going to play when we’re all 100 percent.”
It took Porterville only 20 seconds to score in the second quarter with senior Isaiah Allard sending a long arcing shot over MHS goalie Brock Fleischman’s head. Snyder scored 40 seconds later on a 5-meter penalty shot for a 2-point lead. The Marauders didn’t score until after the 4-minute mark and their goals came back-toback with a close shot from Danan Weisenberger, who than hit Palacios for another score on a man-up situation to tie the game at 5.
But Porterville once again had an answer for Monache, this time from Steven Wilson. The senior scored twice in a span of two seconds on a man-up situation off a pass from Snyder and off a pool-length pass from goalie Colton Boyd to give the Panthers a 5-2 lead at the half.
“They came out, they played really hard,” Goularte said. “I give a lot of credit to their kids and their team. They came out ready to play, it was just a battle [and] we knew it would be.” The Panthers shutout the Ma-
The Panthers shutout the Marauders 6-0 in the third quarter for Monache’s lone scoreless quarter of the night. But after the quarter break Monache returned with energy answering each Porterville goal with one of their own. Five different Marauders scored in the final quarter with MHS Lee and Ian Azevedo scoring two goals in a span of 30 seconds to end the game.
Snyder finished with six goals, six steals and four assist for the Panthers. Allard had four goals and five steals while Wilson had two goals, two steals, two field blocks and one assist. Both senior Caleb Brumley and junior Josh Halopoff had two goals, while Brumley tacked on four steals as
well. Soprhomore Levi Davis and senior Connor Entenman finished with one steal apiece. In the cage, Boyd had 14 blocks and one assist.
“Thought my guys played really, really well,” MHS head coach Evan Thomas said. “At halftime it was a two goal game, which with them that’s good. [Porterville is] fast. I tell my guys all the time they have three guys that can probably swim under 50 seconds in the 100-meter [race]. So for us to keep up with them for a half is pretty good. And then the fourth quarter we kept playing which I thought was great to see from my team.”
For Monache, Nick Taylor led the team with three goals, two assists and two steals while Weisenberger, Palacios and Oliver Camarena each had two goals apiece. Goalie Fleischman finished
with five blocks and six steals.
Both DIV-II Monache, who finished second in the EYL, and Div-i Porterville are looking to receive high seeds for the playoffs with the possibility of playing their first games at home.
“Everytime we get in the pool it’s going to be a battle,” Goularte said. “It doesn’t matter who we play, they made it to the playoffs for a reason and they’re there to win. “