Titan polo men sink Longhorns in key inter-divisional match-up

The Eastlake High School boys water polo team scored a key 14-10 non-league victory against Rancho Buena Vista Tuesday evening at the Southwestern College pool. With the win, the Titans improved to 5-3 on the season as the six-time defending Mesa League champions attempt to build momentum for the second-half of the season.

“We were a little rusty to star with after not playing for more than a week,” EHS head coach Austin Legg admitted afterward. “We hit a lot of bars, missed a lot of shots. But the good thing was that we had a lot of opportunities.”

Eastlake led 2-1 after the first quarter. Senior team captain Kyle Schauer, who proved to be the team’s shooter early in the proceedings, scored the Titans’ opening two goals.

Eastlake owned the edge throughout the contest, pitting teams from the Division II (Titans) and Division I (Longhorns) enrollment levels. However, RBV stayed close – perhaps too close at times – throughout most of the contest.

The Longhorns cut the EHS lead to 3-2, 4-3, tied the game four-all, and later made it 6-5 and 9-8 before the hosts finally managed to pull away in the fourth quarter.

While Schauer found scoring range from the onset, it took a while longer for teammate Nate Niehaus to find his groove. Once Niehaus did, however, his shots proved lethal.

Niehaus wound up pacing the Titans with six goals in the game while Schauer scored twice. A total of five Eastlake players scored goals in the game. Kyle Kowalski netted three goals while Sal Gomez scored twice and and Peter Kobilk scored once.

Titan goalie Aaron Atchison finished the game with five saves, two assists and one steal.

Schauer was active on the defensive side as well with a team-leading five steals while Randall had four steals.

The Titans led 7-5 at halftime and 11-8 at the end of the third quarter before finally managing to shake the Longhorns, who fell to 1-7 on the season.

“We had to slow down what we were doing,” Legg explained. “We were our own worst enemy by feeding their counter-attack. Once we did that, we didn’t get counter-attacked by them as much.”

Eastlake next plays a non-league game Oct. 2 at 6:30 p.m. at Monte Vista High School.