Men’s water polo team advances in its quarter final playoffs

By Breana Lee,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

The Davis High men’s water polo team beat Turlock High 12-2 on Thursday, Nov. 3 at the Woodland High pool.

The Devils started out the game quickly when senior Matt Blackwell, center defender, scored their first goal in under 30 seconds. These were followed by another two goals by junior Jake Taylor, attacker.

Blackwell then added another goal before the Turlock team scored its first. The quarter ended with the score 4-1 for the Blue Devils.

During the second quarter, the Blue Devils showed off their passing and had good movement with the ball. Blackwell scored a hat trick by shooting past the goalie in the second quarter.

The Davis players went into their third quarter and scored four more goals. There were two each from Blumberg and Alvarez,  after quick passes around the goal.

Junior Sam Murphy dominated the goal during the first three quarters and blocked numerous Turlock goals.

Overall, Blackwell scored a hat trick and Alvarez scored four goals, while Taylor and Blumberg both contributed two goals and Masson with his one.

Although the team won 12-2, Alvarez does not believe they are finished working.

“It was a win, 12-2, but we didn’t execute properly. If we want to win, we have a lot to work on,” Alvarez said.

Coach Tracy Stapleton agrees with Alvarez.

“It [was] lackluster. It wasn’t pretty. It does not meet our standards. Our standards in terms of how we play and how we do things. Those goals, objectives aren’t based on things like scoring goals. It’s about how we do things like how we run offense and defense. That’s where we didn’t do as good of a job as we’re capable of,” Stapleton said.

The Blue Devils will move on to play in the semi-finals on Tuesday, Nov. 8 in Modesto.