Round one of the California Community College Athletic Association Championships proved to be a success to the men’s water polo team as it beat Fullerton College 13-11 Thursday, Nov. 14.
Cerritos College had the upper hand in the first minutes of the game. Fullerton’s men were very aggressive as it drove deep into the Falcons’ nest to strike back at Cerritos.
The offensive efforts of the Hornets however, were enough to break Cerritos’ defensive lines.
Sophomore utility Randy Baldwin noticed the offensive nature of the Hornets, “Fullerton likes to drive a lot, so we are just working on trying not to get picked and when they try to pick us just get away.”
Fullerton ordered everyone to mark a Falcon player, giving the Falcons little to no space to pass the ball.
“You just have to communicate with each other,” Baldwin said. “You have to switch a lot, so if one guy picks this guy, you just say ‘hey switch’.”
In order to confuse the Fullerton pressing tactic, the Falcons would switch positions with each other and continue a steady motion to never standing still.
“Communication is key,” he said. “That’s the thing we work on.”
Although the team did win the match, Baldwin believes the team has more to offer, “We did better during the Long Beach game. This game we just seemed like we didn’t do as well.”
“It’s kind of tricky what they (Fullerton) were doing, but we did our best.”
“We knew they were a good team,” freshman 2-meter offense Michael Hanna said. “We just came in knowing they were going to drive a lot. We already knew their game plan so we tried to plan for it and it came out well.”
The team used counter measures learned during practice to compete against the attacking team.
Head coach Joe Abing wanted his players to give their best effort, “We made some mistakes,” Abing said. “I think the mistakes that we made we could hopefully grow from.”
Even though the Falcons controlled much of the game, the Hornets were always right behind waiting for the Falcons to make one mistake and steal the lead from Cerritos.
“I think we could do better, we need to do better,” he said. “I feel fortunate that we got the win. Fullerton played a really good game, made it difficult for us. I think we could do better.”
