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There’s been no better boys’ water polo matchup in the Moore League in recent years than Long Beach Poly’s matchups with Millikan, and Thursday afternoon’s edition was no exception.
Although the Jackrabbits have had Millikan’s number for the better part of the last decade under head coach Ishmael Pluton, the gap has closed in recent years as the pair battled in a one-goal match last year. Thursday’s matchup at Millikan had the same intensity and was tied through three quarters before Poly eventually pulled away in a decisive fourth quarter for a 16-12 win.
“We’ve been talking about this game for the last two weeks. We knew Millikan was continuing to get better and better. We knew this was a rivalry game and that we were coming into a really tough environment to play in,” Pluton said. “We’ve been super intentional in our preparation for Millikan, and all these boys are completely bought in. They’ve been coming to practice early and working really hard to come out of this game with a win.”
In a game that had both five ties and five lead changes, it took an explosive seven-goal fourth quarter from Poly to eventually pull ahead for good. It helped that Millikan was in foul trouble, which forced the Rams out of their press defense and into a zone, allowing Poly’s offense to open up. Things were especially open on the outside, where Rene Ortega had three of his four goals in the fourth quarter, including the first of the quarter that gave Poly its final lead.
“We just knew that was it. That was our last chance,” Ortega said of that fourth quarter. “We were tied going into that quarter and I knew I just had to show up for my team. The stakes were high, but we knew that we could do it. It was a full team effort, and I knew that no matter what, miss or score, they were by my side.”
Poly junior Ryan Oatey led all scorers with five goals to go alongside Ortega’s four. Fellow junior Aiden Greenwood finished with a hat trick, while Carlo Menes, Lars Kutzner-Smith, Benjamin Rocha and Noah Gomez each added one in the win.
For Millikan, the Rams had five players with a pair of goals in Adam Wells, Max Cortez, Stephen Fischer, Tanner Yockey and Taj Dahul. Kody Rankin and Drew Amaro Vidrio each added one goal.
“I thought we played really well for three quarters,” said Millikan coach Luke Garrison. “We executed our game plan, and credit to Poly and Coach Ish, but my endgame adjustments in the fourth quarter just weren’t there. I let my boys down at the end of the day. They played a very good game and my boys stepped up in a big way. I just have to be better.”
The Jackrabbits quickly opened the game with a two-score lead, as Greenwood and Ortega found the game’s opening goals. Millikan stayed right there in it and added a pair of goals midway through the first from Wells and Cortez, while Oatey had two for Poly, including a penalty shot to give the Jackrabbits a 4-2 lead after the first quarter.
Millikan was able to close that lead to start the second quarter, as Yockey and Fischer both had goals to tie it at four apiece. Poly matched with a pair of goals from Menes and Greenwood before a Rankin goal for Millikan sent the Rams into the halftime break with a one-goal deficit.
The Rams then quickly overcame that deficit to start the second half, as Yockey and Amaro Vidrio scored back-to-back goals to give Millikan its first lead of the game. Poly called a timeout to regather itself early in that third quarter before responding with a goal from Kutzner-Smith and a penalty shot from Oatey, and the teams traded goals to end the third quarter tied 9-9.
“Millikan came out of halftime fired up, and we just needed to wake up a bit,” Pluton said of the third quarter. “We weren’t quite ready for them to come back in the second half. I think that my boys thought that maybe they’d settle down, so we just needed a quick wake-up, and we were able to get back out there and go in the right direction.”
Poly’s seven-goal fourth quarter saw five different goal scorers, as Oatey, Rocha, Greenwood and Gomez had goals to go alongside Ortega’s fourth-quarter hat trick. Millikan’s offense still had spurts of success in that fourth quarter, as Dahul had both of his goals in the period while Wells added his second of the game.
The Moore League boys’ water polo season will continue next week, as Poly will host Cabrillo on Tuesday while Millikan will be at Wilson.
