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By TRISTAN MALHOTRA
Sports Editor
UHS Boys Water Polo dropped games against Northwood High School (NHS) and Corona Del Mar High School (CDM) in its second and third Pacific Coast League (PCL) games. Despite the losses, the Trojans are still confident in their two leaders: Scholar Athlete of the Week Jacob Ghahremani (Sr.) and PCL goal leader Daniel Campanaro (Jr.).
Against NHS, the Trojans started slow, going down 1-3 in the first quarter. UHS battled back, behind 3 goals from Campanaro and 8 saves from Kian Abolhoda (Sr.), to lead 6-4 at the end of the end of the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, however, the Trojans were shut out and gave up 4 goals to the Timberwolves to fall 6-8.
“We were really pumped going into the 4th quarter because we had just scored a buzzer beater from far out,” Abolhoda said. “But I think it’s that excitement that made us become arrogant and get too lax on defense and counter defense, which specifically led to the goal that put us down by one.”
UHS appeared to let that loss affect their play against PCL-leading CDM. The Sea Kings got off to a fast start, and UHS fell behind 1-8 at the end of the first quarter and 3-16 by the end of the half. The Trojans had no answer for CDM and suffered a 7-24 loss after the lopsided first half.
The silver lining for UHS was Campanaro’s 4 goals to put him atop of PCL in goals scored, passing teammate Ghahremani. The Trojans look ahead to games against Irvine High School and Woodbridge High School, still searching for a win to improve their 0-3 record.
