Hood River water polo teams crush Mt. View

Head coach for the girls, Kellie Dunn, and her team welcomed Mountain View to town last week and showed them how a championship contender takes care of business. The Eagles (2-3 overall) found the back of the net 21 times, led by Tess Marsden, who was involved in almost half of the Hood River goals scored. She recorded six goals and four assists for the Eagles — both team highs. Other scorers were Michelle Graves (3), Maya Arndt (3), Sophie Cross (2), Kylin Elliott (2), Meg Donnelly (2), Sophie Helleberg (1) Mackenzie Thurner (1), and Nyxey Heredia (1).

The Eagle boys opened their Mountain View match clearly the better team, as they took a 9-2 lead into halftime. In the third quarter, Hood River Coach Garrett Hall gave his starters a break and the second unit some quality playing time. Mountain View saw this as an opportunity to jump back into the game. The Cougars outscored the Eagles, 7-1, down the stretch of the fourth quarter and brought the score within 13-10 with less than two minutes to play.

Hood River’s Jack Stehlik scored once more for the Eagles and the match ended 14-11.

Hood River boys Coach Garrett Hall said everyone is excited to be back in the water with an injury-free team. “It was great to get everybody back together. We had a couple concussions. So, that was the first time we’ve had the full squad,” Garrett said of the Mountain View match.

Hood River opened the season with losses to Newberg, Lakeridge, and Mountain View (in a tourney), followed by wins Sept. 10 over Bend and Summit.

Last week against Mountain View, Finn Spence led the scoring with five goals. Caiden Titus and Stehlik each added three. Two-year varsity starting goalkeeper Owen Sheppard made 11 saves and also recorded two assists from goal. Six players recorded two or more assists. Elijah Adams and Rohan Faber had three apiece.

Dunn, entering her ninth year at the helm, said she and her team have formed a rivalry with the Hillsboro team. “We always love to play Hillsboro. We have a good relationship with them — a healthy, competitive one. But it was fun to compete against them in that last game. And I know they’re coming out looking for blood this year,” she said of the scheduled Oct. 11 match at Hillsboro.

Before they faced Mountain View, the girls team visited 6A perennial powerhouse Newberg on Sept. 5. “We started out that game playing behind; we were actually behind all the way until halfway through the fourth quarter when we finally took the lead,” Dunn said.

The next week the Eagle girls lost three matches to 6A schools. The preseason schedule includes the annual shut down of Hood River Aquatic Center for a couple weeks (to address repairs and clean the pools). This means both teams must train in the Columbia River at Nichols Basin. 

“It’s always really tough because you can’t run game tactics out of the pool. So, it’s a lot of individual skills and trying to keep endurance going,” said Dunn.