By Mike Weber
For Columbia Gorge News
HOOD RIVER — The Hood River Valley Class 5A boys and girls water polo teams both won games last week to extend their winning streaks.
The No. 6-ranked Eagles’ girls squad, guided by longtime Coach Kellie Dunn, played in a tournament Sept. 26-27 at Newberg and they won four-out-of-five matches. The Eagles (1-2 North League, 14-3 overall) won two matches by identical 12-1 scores. They beat the Class 6A Lake Oswego High Lakers (11-2) and they also beat the Bend High Lava Bears (0-6). The Eagles lost 10-0 to the Class 6A Lakeridge High Pacers (10-0) in their first match Sept. 26 at Newberg.
“The team really seems to be coming together and figuring out how to reach each other in the pool,” said Dunn. “Our counter attacks have become one of our best weapons, which showcases our speed. The Newberg tournament was a great weekend for us as we got to play a lot of 6A teams that we normally don’t get to see and we took third place overall.”
On Sept. 29 Eagles won at home 14-2 over the Lincoln High Cardinals (0-10). They followed with an Oct. 1, 13-5, win at Hillsboro (10-5), extending their win streak to six straight victories. The Eagles will play their next game at 5 p.m., Oct. 13 versus Hillsboro. The Eagles are in second place in the six-team Central League standings.
“In the game against Hillsboro, we played very tough defense, and our goalies really backed that up well, too,” Dunn said. “Offensively, our scoring was spread out nicely among the players and it was really a great team win.”
Eagle boys win six straight
The No. 10-ranked Hood River Valley Eagles’ boys water polo team, guided by Coach Cael Price, won two nonleague matches last week to extend their win streak to six straight.
“We continue to build momentum at the halfway point of the season,” said Price.
The Eagles (4-0 Central League, 10-8 overall) won 15-10 at home over the Lincoln High Cardinals on Sept. 29, followed by an Oct. 1, 6-4 road win over the Hillsboro High Spartans (7-4) for their sixth consecutive win. The Eagles are in first place in the six-team Central League standings.
“It was a tightly contest match with Hillsboro and we held the lead throughout the entire game, and we controlled the pace of play,” said Price. “We had to rotate some players often though in the lineup because of some foul trouble. The standout player on our team was goalkeeper Simon Althoff, who had 16 saves.”
The Eagles will play their next Oct. 7 at Class 6A Grant High (2-7) of Portland; their next home game is Oct. 13 versus Hillsboro.
“We’re looking forward to continuing our win streak and we hope to flip the script against Grant,” said Price. “We have lost the previous two games this season against Grant.”
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