OHS rules in water polo showdown

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OHS rules in water polo showdown

Sports

Thursday, 01 April 2010 07:45

By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor
The annual meeting between Osceola and Gateway decides the county’s Orange Belt Conference water polo championship because those are the only two schools that participate.
After Tuesday’s match at the Makinson Aquatic Center, it was all blue and gold as both the Kowboys (8-6) and Lady Kowboys (17-6) emerged as winners.
“Our guys always get fired up for Gateway; it’s always a good match and it’s for the conference championship, so they really look forward to this one,” OHS Coach Trish Abell said.
The Kowboys improved to 10-5, 8-1 in the district, with the victory and may earn the No. 2 seed at the district tournament later this month. The top four teams in the district qualify for the tournament.
“It’s been a great season, the guys have played extremely well,” Abell said.
They had to in order to beat a determined Panthers (8-6, 5-4) squad Tuesday. Gateway took a 1-0 first-period lead on the first of five Josh Gomez goals, but the Kowboys countered with goals from Cameron Wehr, who scored four total, and Carl Tait to go up 3-1 after one period.
The Kowboys seemed in control after Wehr fed Zack Yawn for a 5-3 lead in the second period, but Gomez scored with 35 seconds to go in the half, making it 5-4. Tait’s second goal made it 6-4, but Gomez scored twice in a two-minute span to pull Gateway even at 6 entering the final period.
Both goalies, Gateway’s E.J. Marino and Osceola’s Demitrius San Roman, made outstanding saves early in the period, but OHS took the lead with 1:49 to play when San Roman found Daniel Wade open on a transition and Wade buried the shot for his only score of the game.
“You always have to be looking for who’s open, you have to make good decisions,” Kowboys Coach Jaime Abell said. “Water polo is a fluid, pardon the pun, game, where you always have to react to what the defense is doing. You’re making decisions on the fly. Demetrius made a good play there to find the open man.”
Gateway Coach Vonnie Kochensparger tried to call timeout as the match was winding down, but the referee didn’t hear the request until OHS took control of the ball. That caused a penalty to be called against the Panthers for calling a timeout on defense.
Wehr buried the penalty shot with 1:02 to play to provide an insurance goal.
“Obviously, he (the referee) didn’t hear when we called several times for the timeout,” Kochensparger said. “It’s disappointing. Our guys played hard, and I thought E.J. had a tremendous game in goal.”
Jaime Abell agreed.
“We probably had twice as many shots, but we didn’t capitalize. Part of it was their defense. Gateway always plays great defense, and their goalie is very good.”
The girls match did not have fourth-period drama as OHS, 11-4, dominated from the beginning, building a 5-0 lead in the first period on goals from Kristen Miller, who scored seven, Manuela Gutierrez, Cassandra Welch (four goals) and Amy Wilson. Amber Hammock scored twice for OHS. Jenna Adams and Samantha Manguait also scored for the Kowgirls, who are in third place in the district and will advance to the tournament.
“Our girls have been playing very well all season. It’s teamwork,” Osceola Coach Debra “Rennie” Adams said. “Our captains, Kristin Miller and Cassandra Welch, have done a great job, and our goalie, Brooke Hammock, has been excellent.”
Kochensparger said Osceola did an excellent job to contain Gateway’s primary scoring threats, Amber Paoloemilio (three goals) and Melissa Morgan (two goals). Jodi Hennen also scored.
“We tried moving Amber around, and we did some things that normally would have worked, but Brooke is an outstanding goalie and it just didn’t happen,” Kochensparger said. “Kudos to her.”
Gateway’s boys and girls, 10-4, are fighting for the fourth playoff spot.
The district tournaments are April 24 at Winter Park.