Cate Water Polo Fights Hard in Season Opener

August 30, 2024

Senior Captain Phin Stephenson scores an amazing skip shot under the goalkeeper’s left arm.

Strong start and standout plays highlight Cate’s season debut against Santa Barbara High.

Cate vs SBHS Varsity Water Polo:
Yesterday, August 30th, our Cate boy’s water polo team hosted its first non-league game of the season versus Santa Barbara High School. After a successful 2023 campaign and 2024 preseason, our guys were eager to get their season underway against a formidable opponent. We started our match versus the Dons on a great note. 9th grader Fletcher Prince put away a well-placed backhand shot out of center to tie the game up at one apiece. Later in the quarter, Junior Jae Wykoff leaned right and shot left on an outside shot to give us a one-goal cushion. Finally, Senior Captain Phin Stephenson capped off our three-goal first quarter with an amazing skip shot under the goalkeeper’s left arm. We led after one, 3 – 2.
Santa Barbara did a good job adjusting their matchups and game plan to neutralize some of our better scorers. Baye Breene managed to get a bucket in the second quarter on a power play goal but we found ourselves trailing 5 – 4 at the half. Sophomore goalkeeper Andrew Sheshunoff kept it close for us in the second half when our offense began to struggle. By the end of the match, Sheshunoff would finish with 11 saves from the net.
The second half was a defensive battle for both teams. Junior Ashwin Patel came up with a timely steal to help give us a spark in the 3rd period. Jae Wykoff had an outstanding game shutting down any center production from SBHS. Wykoff would also score his second goal of the match at the start of the fourth period. He stepped up and was our sole multi-goal scorer on the day.
In the end, SBHS would leave the Mesa with an 8 – 5 win. It was a great first game for us. There were a lot of encouraging individual performances and we showed flashes of being a well-organized and succinct team. With only two weeks of training under our belt we are in a great spot moving forward. Looking ahead, our next game will be against Channel Islands High School on September 12th. Go Rams!