Gondos Water Polo Edges Archrival, 9-8

Holding a seemingly comfortable 7-4 lead going into the final period of Monday's grudge game against Palisades, the boys water polo squad appeared on its way to an easy road victory over its archrival.

However, the upset-minded Dolphins rallied to tie the score with just under one and a half minutes remaining and it took a goal by junior two-meter player Julian Perez with 14 seconds left for the Gondos to escape with a 9-8 win against a team they had beaten handily, 8-4, in a tournament 10 days earlier. 

"The play kind of developed on its own but I got it right where I wanted it," said Perez, who grabbed a return pass from Ellington Peet, whirled around, and fired the ball into the left corner of the net. "I had it in the two-meter area and kicked it out to Ellington and he passed it back in to me. From that close it's hard to miss."

Palisades is but a first-year program yet it has been one of the surprise teams in the this season, having won its first five games against City opponents and entering Monday's contest tied atop the league standings with the defending champion Gondos.

"They may be a new team but it's still pretty big because our schools are rivals so we always want to beat Palisades," Perez said. "We hadn't played since last Wednesday and our fundamentals were a little off. It became sort of a see-saw game at the end, which isn't how we wanted it."

Zach DeSantis scored two goals and Hunter Gawboy, Vincent Malike, Jordan Kelch, Carmelo Furlan, Peet and Perez each added one goal for the Gondos, who moved into sole possession of first place in league. The teams face off again next Monday at Venice. DeSantis scored on a rebound to put Venice ahead 8-5 with 3:52 left in the fourth period. 

"We made a couple of bone-headed plays that allowed them to get back in the game," Venice Coach Bart Gawboy said. "We made some bad passes, we weren't executing our offense and our hole setter wasn't as aggressive as he should be."

Venice had a much easier time against the Dolphins in its opening game of the on Sept. 24, winning by four goals. The Gondos went on to lose to host Brentwood and the junior varsity team from Sherman Oaks Notre Dame. In nonleague games, the Gondos beat Roosevelt but lost to Culver City, Cleveland and Eagle Rock. They opened league play with decisive wins against Banning and LACES. 

After Perez scored the go-ahead goal Friday, the Dolphins quickly set up their offense, but Patrick Huggins turned the ball over with six seconds left and Venice goalie Duncan Fredrick held onto the ball until the clock expired. Fredrick made five saves, including a point-blank stop on Palisades' Luka Kosanin to keep the game tied with about one minute left.

"I told my players to apply tight, in-your-face pressure defense in the fourth quarter and that took them out of their offense some," Palisades Coach Adam Blakis said. "We played poor defense on their last goal but this is a huge improvement over last time. I was surprised it was that close."

Score by Periods

1

2

3

4

Final

Venice

3

1

3

2

9

Palisades

2

1

1

4

8

Goals: Venice -- DeSantis 2, Gawboy, Salazar, Furlan, Peet, Perez, Malike, Kelch. Palisades -- Huggins 3, Feizbakhsh 2, Kosanin, Hernandez, Marsh.

Records: Venice 4-3, 3-0; Palisades 5-1, 2-1.