Paloma Valley water polo team beats Liberty in overtime

By Paige Mendez, Correspondent

Paloma Valley’s boys water polo team played Liberty for the second time this season Wednesday evening and came out with an 8-6 victory in overtime.

Paloma was the first to score, less than two minutes into the game. Then Liberty found the net just around the 3:30 mark. But Paloma answered within 30 seconds with another goal of their own, maintaining the lead at the end of the first quarter. The two Wildcat goals came from Vincent Gomez and Caleb Wyant.

Liberty mirrored Paloma’s first-quarter score with a 2-1 second-quarter advantage to tie the game at the half, 3-3.

Paloma’s Keito Yanagisawa scored the Wildcats’ only goal of the third quarter, while Liberty scored three in under four minutes, taking their first lead at the end of the third quarter, 6-4.

Wildcats goalie Ben Jackson said he felt frustrated with his performance after the two Bison goals and was hoping to do more for his team. But a talk with his mom between quarters helped him out.

“I was just so frustrated with those two [goals] and felt like I should be doing more for my team,” said Jackson. “My mom came and talked to me on the bench, though, and I was able to get back into my mindset that it was a 0-0 game and I just needed to play my hardest.”

The Wildcats followed Jackson’s lead and fought back to tie the game in the fourth quarter with a goal from Gomez and Yanagisawa to bring the score to a tie at the end of regulation.

They were then headed into two three-minute periods for overtime.

Anthony Spaan of Paloma scored the first goal just around the one-minute mark to give his team the lead. Then Jackson blocked an attempt from Liberty -- his 10th block of the night -- to keep that lead.

Gomez sealed the deal with another goal with under a minute left in the first overtime period.

Neither team scored in the second overtime period, giving Paloma the win.

Gomez led the team with three goals on five attempts.

“It was very hectic in overtime,” said Gomez. “But to be able to score that goal [at the end] was a special moment.”

The first match-up between these two teams last Wednesday ended with a 13-3 Bison victory, so Paloma head coach Cameron Lindroth felt most proud of the team for sticking with it until the end and finding another outcome.

“We played a complete game today,” Lindroth said. “They had a players’ meeting after the last time we played Liberty and really got to the heart of what they want this season.”

Jackson and Gomez said that meeting was something they wanted to do together in order to change what they saw go wrong in that initial Liberty game.

“We all work hard and push each other and strive,” Jackson said. “I want people to know we might be small but they can’t sleep on us, because we might get down but we’ll fight back.”

“We want people to know that we’re here and ready to play,” added Gomez. “Our mindset is better, our bodies are better and we’re ready to win -- ultimately.”

The Wildcats — now 5-7 overall — have seven more games to prove that, the first of which will be another home game against Don Lugo Thursday at 6 p.m.