{"id":2164,"date":"2010-02-12T06:17:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-12T06:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/sports\/girls-water-polo-poly-bests-millikan-for-second\/"},"modified":"2010-02-12T06:17:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-12T06:17:00","slug":"girls-water-polo-poly-bests-millikan-for-second","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/girls-water-polo-poly-bests-millikan-for-second","title":{"rendered":"Girls’ Water Polo: Poly Bests Millikan For Second"},"content":{"rendered":"


<\/em>Photo by Shar Higa<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

After three quarters of play, Poly’s and Millikan’s girls’ water polo teams were knotted at five goals each, with seven minutes left to play and the Moore League’s second seed on the line.  <\/span>It’s been years since the Rabbits won that distinction, with Poly’s current coach Scott Penttila saying he’d never beaten Millikan in a league game.  <\/span>Thanks to a 4-0 performance in the fourth quarter, Poly netted a 9-5 win and sole possession of second place in league, finishing 3-1, while Millikan finishes at 2-2.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Thanks a great defensive effort that prevented Millikan from passing much at all in the first half, Poly jumped out to a 3-1 lead after the first quarter, with two goals from Orla Brazell (who finished with a game-high five) setting the pace.  <\/span>Millikan battled back in the second, and close the half with an unbelievable mid-pool buzzer beater from Emily Matheson (her second of the period); they went into halftime down 4-3, and continued to battle back in the third period as they passed better, and as Poly failed to convert two man-ups.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

“We could’ve taken charge at that point, but we faltered,” said Penttila, of the missed opportunities.  <\/span>“But I told the girls, ‘We’re peppering them right now, they’re going to start going in.”<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Katie Coats scored what would be the game-winner 2:38 into the final period, then Brazell, Laura Hynn, and Coats all added exclamation points, and set off a raucous celebration in the Poly Natatorium.  <\/span>Penttila praised Brazell’s five-goal performance in helping boost Poly to the important win.  <\/span>“She’s a big-game player, and a great shooter,” he said.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Millikan’s coach, Al Reyes, took the loss in stride.  <\/span>“I’m not going to criticize my team,” he said.  <\/span>“We’re very young\u2014our top scorer is a junior, and our second and third scorers are sophomores.”  <\/span>Reyes expressed pride at the way his team dug themselves out of the hole they dug in the first frame.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The Rabbits shot 9\/30, while holding Millikan to 5\/29, and forced six Rams exclusions, while drawing just two themselves.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a great game for second place, Poly oustscored Millikan 4-0 in the fourth frame to pull off a 9-5 win on the last day of league play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2164"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=2164"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}