Warren High rolls past Santa Fe
Warren’s Nathan Ajen (6) steals the ball away from a Santa Fe player in their league boys water polo game at Santa Fe High School on Tuesday. Warren defeated Santa Fe, 17-5. (Photo by Keith Durflinger)
With the first five consecutive goals in the opening period, the Warren High School Boys Water Polo team went on to dominate the host Santa Fe Sentinels, 17-5, Tuesday (Sept. 22) in a Gateway League game.
Leading the way for the Bears was junior attacker Lucas Rojas with a game-high six goals. That was followed by senior utility player Noah Benavides with three goals, while sophomore utility players Allen Miranda and Rafael Lopez scored two each.
With single goals were senior attacker Alan Santamaria, freshman attacker Juanpablo Perez, junior utility Kayden Mendez and sophomore attacker Nicolas Salazar.
“One of main focuses this season was to grow our bench and it showed in this game,” said fifth-year Warren coach Celeste Moreira, of the high-scoring game.
“It’s good to set the tone so nobody gets complacent, and it allows for a comfortable lead so we were able to get everybody in the game, because it was only a varsity game.” Santa Fe didn’t have a junior varsity team.
With the win, Warren improves to 5-4 overall and 1-0 in league.
The Sentinels (3-10) were led by junior attacker Carlos Medina with three of their five goals. Sophomores Mateo Escobar and Glenn Balankura scored one each.
As for their annual rival game against Downey, the Bears will play the Vikings two times this season.
The first of two Downey-Warren games will take place Thursday, September 24 (Results not available due to press deadline). The second game is October 13.
In the game against Santa Fe, Warren started fast in the scoring column, as Benavides took a 5-meter shot and scored with less than 30 seconds gone in the opening period.
Less than 30 seconds later Rojas, from outside, turned and scored his first of three goals in the period at 5:58.
Two minutes later Rojas took a pass and from the hole set position and he turned and shot and scored for the quick 3-0 lead at 3:56.
“Especially in (hole) set, a big part of that is contact, and when the defender is not making contact with (me), I can take advantage of that,” Rojas explained. “Lateral movement is very important and I was able to move him on that.
“Getting a lead in the first quarter I think makes or breaks a game, especially with us. We have a history of that whatever the result of the first quarter is becomes the result of the game.”
Santamaria, who scored on a breakaway at the 3:19 mark, gave the Bears a 4-0 lead.
Santa Fe got the ball across the midway point only once in the first half of the period, due to the stifling Bears defense.
Rojas scored his third goal of the period after an exclusion of a Sentinels player with 2:12 left in the period to lead, 5-0.
Santa Fe broke the shutout with two minutes left on a shot and goal from way outside by Medina to trail, 5-1.
To start the second period, Balankura made a big field block, but the Warren defense also kept their defense tight on the Sentinels forwards.
Eventually, Warren scored halfway through the period on a long shot and score by Rojas to take a 6-1 lead.
The Bears then scored twice in the span of 26 seconds after a long pass from Perez to Miranda for the 7-1 lead and another goal from Miranda with a quick shot for the 8-1 advantage with 2:11 remaining.
With 1:20 left in the half, Carlos Medina of Santa Fe took a cross pass from sophomore utility Max Medina for only their second goal of the half to trail, 8-2.
The game was undeniably decided in the third period, as the Bears scored seven goals to only one from the Sentinels. They took a 15-3 lead heading into the final period, led by the goaltending from junior Diego Ramos.
“The big lead is good because if they score on us we still have time to make more plays and goals,” Ramos said. “We’re looking good and hopefully we start doing better and we’re doing good right now.
“I believe in all of my teammates and this team with all my heart. We’ll make it somewhere this year.”
Rojas and Lopez led Warren with two goals each in the period.
Rojas, who got up high opened the period with a lob from Mendez to lead 9-2. Less than a minute later he scored again on a pass from Miranda.
Benavides scored his second goal of the game on another pass from Miranda for the 11-2 lead.
“It’s really important, especially when we try to put a game away to maintain an early lead,” said Benavides, of the big early lead.”
Benavides commented on the new teams in the conference and within the division saying, “It’s a fresh start and as long as you can focus on those games you’ll be fine.”
The Bears scored four more consecutive goals for the 15-2 lead with 1:30 left in the period.
Salazar and Perez scored single goals just 19 seconds apart and Lopez scored twice before Santa Fe scored just its third goal of the game by Escobar with 19 seconds left in the period.
The Sentinels scored two more goals in the fourth period on skip shots Balankura and Carlos Medina to trail15-5.
Benavides and Mendez finished the scoring for the Bears with goals in the last 30 seconds of the game.
Assisting Moreira on the bench for Warren is Alex Wheeler and Ozzie Marquez.
Downey names Jarrett Tossey boys water polo coach
Downey High School recently named Jarrett Tossey as the new boys water polo coach to succeed former coach Ariel Villa.
Villa moved on to coach at Orange Lutheran this Fall.
Tossey formerly was the assistant for eight years to Barry O’Dea of Long Beach Wilson for the girls team. He then got his first head coaching job at Edison (Huntington Beach) on the boys side for three years.
Tossey’s assistants include Conner Lipinski, Joaquin De Leon and Sage Bertsch.
Also new in the water polo program is Alex Matel, who was named the girls coach.