Pali High Water Polo Sinks Taft

Before the season, boys water polo coach admitted he would be happy if his team won a match in the program's first year.

After watching the Dolphins' domination of Taft in their opening game, however, Blakis may have to raise his expectations a wee bit.

Palisades looked more like a team that had been together for years than one with a roster full of boys who had never even played the sport prior to the first day of tryouts in late June. 

The Dolphins not only won their debut 16-3 Wednesday at , they were so in command that by the fourth period Blakis had actually told his players not to run up the score.

"I was very surprised we won by such a large margin... I expected them [Taft] to be a lot better," Blakis said. "We haven't played any games until now so it was hard to tell how good we are. By the time we scored three or four goals I was confident we would win easily. I thought we played great in-your-face defense, like a full-court press in basketball."

Palisades once had a proud water polo program, but it was dropped in the early 1980s. Scoring the first goal Wednesday, a mere 25 seconds into the contest, was senior , later presented with the game ball for netting the initial point of the Dolphins' first season in over 25 years.

" won the sprint, I set up quickly and got fouled," said Elias, describing the goal. "I gave the ball, drifted to the left side and he was double-teamed and passed it to me. I shot it high to the short side right off the pass from about three meters."

Elias, who began playing after school for Blakis' club team last November, is proud to be part of the program's resurgence.

"I feel great, I feel accomplished," he said. "Palisades was a power back in the day and now we want to re-start the tradition."

By the time the full 28 minutes had expired, , and Elias had each scored three goals while tallied a game-high five goals--including three in the first period alone. 

"Conditioning was a huge part of it, they just couldn't keep up with us," said Huggins, one of six sophomores who got experience playing the sport at the over the summer. "All of my goals were pretty much off counterattacks. I was faster and just blew right by them. We were also pressing hard on defense."

and Hernandez each added one goal to round out the scoring. Goalies and each played two periods, Venckus the first and third and Kent the second and fourth.

"Eventually you'd like to settle on one starter but I'll keep platooning the goalies for now," Blakis said. "They're equally good at blocking shots and passing the ball up the pool."

The Dolphins only have a varsity team this season and got their first taste of real competition several weeks ago in a scrimmage against Venice--a more experienced, more skilled team. That experience motivated Palisades' players to raise their intensity level in practice.

Particularly Pronichenko, who scored his first goal on a backhand.

"I was really nervous before this game because I wasn't sure how good Taft was," said Pronichenko, also a varsity swimmer who placed sixth in the 100 breaststroke at the finals in May. "The moment we started, though, I thought we had a chance of winning. Venice is good, but I think we'll do better next time we play them because we're going to keep improving the more we play together."   

Kevin Lim, Adam Reyes and Elisha Vetter each scored for Taft, which finished 2-11 and went winless in the West Valley League last season.

"I'm giddy inside... I'm really proud of them because I pushed them hard in practice and it's nice to see the hard work paid off," Blakis said. "I knew we'd have speed and stamina because all the boys are good swimmers, and that showed today. Where we're weak is on the skills side--passing and shooting and positioning. All that will come in time, but for the first game I think they did great and I couldn't be happier." 

Palisades will try for its second win Friday at Los Angeles (game time 2:45 p.m.) before returning to their home pool for a nonleague game against Van Nuys next Monday. The Dolphins open play Sept. 26 at Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies.   

Click to view Palisades' complete boys water polo schedule.

Score by Periods

1

2

3

4

Final

Taft

1

0

0

2

3

Palisades

5

5

4

2

16

Goals: Taft -- Lim, Reyes, Vetter. Palisades -- Huggins 5, Pronichenko 3, Elias 3, Valencia 3, Hernandez, Marsh.

Records: Taft 0-1; Palisades 1-0.