Schools
Sharks Water Polo Goes on a Feeding Frenzy
The Malibu High School boys water polo team devoured three straight league rivals in one week.
The Malibu High School Sharks water polo season is less than two months long. This week the Sharks got a break playing against three smaller schools, giving the team a chance to have everyone play lots of minutes.
First up for the Sharks was the Cate High (Carpinteria) Rams on Oct. 5 at the Malibu High "Shark Tank." Malibu was expecting to win, and lead 7-1 after the first quarter and 14-2 at half time.
The second half was mostly spent getting bench players time to work on plays. The final score was 19-7. Highlights included five goals for Emmet Pierson and two goals each for Jordan Clarke, Alec Wilimovsky, Morgan Hathorn and Cooper Bell.
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Next up the Sharks travelled up to Ojai on Oct. 10 to play the Nordhoff Rangers and once again the score was lopsided.
At halftime, Malibu was up 10-2 and cruised to 18-8 victory. This time Jordan Clarke led the way with six goals and seven kick outs on the defense. Owen Franz looks to be recovered from a recent injury and scored three goals and had three steals. Henry Buckley also came up big with eight assists and two steals.
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The last of the three games was on Oct. 11 at the Shark Tank against Villanova Prep (Ojai) Wildcats. Once again the score was a lopsided 9-1 at halftime and ended with a final score of 14-6.
The big highlight for the game was goalie Dane Sartorius with 16 blocks in just the first half. If Sartorius had played the whole game he would have likely set a school record in blocks for a single game.
Clarke had his second big game in a row with five goals. The Sharks got two goals a piece from Shaan McPartlin, Buckley, Wilimovsky and Arvin Abolfathi. With Pierson and Hathorn out for the last two games with sickness or injury, it was a good time to be missing key players.
The Sharks now have a 14-3 record and are hopefully ready for what looks to be a much more challenging week ahead. Next up is the annual Oxnard Tournament this Friday and Saturday.
Then they play Carpinteria for the second time next Wednesday before their highly anticipated rematch against league rival Oaks Christian. After that the Sharks will only have four games left before the CIF playoffs.
Malibu remains ranked third in Division VI and hopes to be heading for a run at the division championship.
