A water polo “what if” put a disappointing twist on the Hood River teams’ efforts Saturday.
Concerns over a potent Western Oregon wind and rain storm led the Hood River County School District to call a halt to local athletes’ participation in some competitions, including the cross country’s planned trip to a meet in Portland. For safety reasons, bus travel was cancelled.
Hood River’s cross country team was also stopped from a traveling to a Portland-area meet. The team heads to Bend Oct. 23 and will host the district meet on Oct. 27.
Horizon Christian School also saw its sports calendar dampened this way: the school called off the soccer team’s league game against C.S. Lewis Academy – see story below.
In the case of water polo, though, the team had made the trip to Portland for the Team Dan Berry tournament and, in the first round of play on Friday, had considerable success against tough odds.
Yet with the storm picking up, the school district cancelled all school sports and activities that were out of town and the girls water polo team was forced to forfeit its second day of games.
The girls played three games on Friday, beating Beaverton 10-3 and then Summit 8-1.
“We’d never beaten Summit before and they are the 5A powerhouse and are usually expected to win the State title, so that was a really big win for us,” girls Coach Kellie Dunn Dunn said.
Boys Coach Dave Robinson said, “The boys are really progressing as they learn to work at a team on both sides of the ball and my freshmen get used to the faster, more physical game at the high school level.
“A great example is the emergence of Ruben Blaine, Corbett Blackman and Conner McElwee, all freshmen, who are beginning to log more starting varsity time,” he said. “In our first game with a tough Parkrose team about a month ago, they came in playing fast and physical and cruised to a 18-6 victory. In this tournament, the HR boys rose up and blanked Parkrose in the first quarter leading 1-0 and were down just 2-1 at the half. Unfortunately, Parkrose adjusted and pulled away to win 8-2 but it was a huge improvement and the only loss on the day.”
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The girls’ third game of the tournament was against league rival Gresham and the Eagles won 13-1.
“We were supposed to go back in the championship bracket on Saturday where we would match up with Reynolds and Barlow. Last week the Eagles had defeated Barlow for the second time this year and Reynolds has been beaten by Barlow already, “and we were poised to potentially finish at the top,” Dunn said.
But the concerns over the storm interceded. The forfeit “was a huge disappointment for the team to not get to play it out, but out of our control,” Dunn said.
The squads traveled to Reynolds Monday, hosted Gresham Tuesday at Hood River Aquatic Center, and travels to Grant on Wednesday.
“Obviously we don’t know for sure we would have finished the tournament in first, but things were looking good,” Dunn said. “At the end of the day, the team still got some good competitive play and a chance to match up against Summit was really worth going in itself. We can also look at the surprise day of rest on Saturday as a bit of a bonus since we were coming off of a week where we had already played three full games and three tournament games, not to mention we have another three game week this week.”
“This was a great tournament to give the boys and girls State-level experience on the road to the State tournament next month,” said Robinson. I really see the improvement in all team aspects of the boys’ game; now our focus needs to be individual skills and fundamentals that will raise each player’s ability and the team as a whole.”
Dan Berry Tournament
The girls were seeded first leading into Saturday and the boys second. Girls leaders were Jamie Robinson with 12 goals, 5 assists and 11 steals, Rose Finstad with 7 goals, 4 assists, 1 steal and Faith Ocheskey with 4 goals, 3 assists and 9 steals.
Boys leaders were JJ Mears with 13 goals, 6 assists and 5 steals, Chad Klaas with 8 goals, 9 assists and 15 steals, and Cole Rothman with 7 goals, 3 assists and 3 steals.
Tournament play was set at three different pools. The Eagle teams started at Parkrose High School Pool and the second day would be at David Douglas.
Goalie Kat McElderry suffered a dislocated shoulder, so senior Sloan Hall took on tending duties “somewhat cold,” Dunn said. Hall played backup last season, but has been focused on field this season “and she really rose to the challenge.
“The rest of the team stepped up defense and really rallied after Kat’s injury in the first quarter to get points on the board and to hold Summit to just one goal,” Dunn said.
Dunn said McElderry is on the injured list for now, and her availability this week is uncertain.
“Her spirits are high though and she’s remaining optimistic, which I think is good,” Dunn said.
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