Water polo results: Ochesky lobs last-second winner; Boys overcome Parkrose, lose to David Douglas

The squads traveled to Barlow High School to play Grant High of Portland on Thursday (too late for press time).

Both defeated Parkrose on Oct. 10, with the girls taking it 16-3, and the boys by 11-9 on two late goals.

“It was tight game that was locked at 9-9 halfway through the fourth quarter,” boys coach David Robinson said.

Tucker Diffin, a sophomore, scored on a skip shot and Luke Southall, a junior, put a backhand sweep shot into the net for the two winning goals.

For the girls, Faith Ochesky scored a lob shot with one second left, one of her two goals for the night.

High scorer was Kate Guadagnuolo with four goals.

“It was awesome to see Kate step up and make some key shots for us,” said girls coach Kellie Dunn.

“We had a small crew, everyone played a lot and everyone scored at least two goals. Goals, assists and steals were so spread out, with the whole team involved and working hard. It shows a great team effort,” she said.

“David Douglas was a really fun game, we finally had a close game on our hands,” Dunn said. “It had been awhile since we had one of those.

“We played some really good, clean water polo,” she said.

“Going into the David Douglas game we knew it was going to come down to who can battle better against adversity. We knew they were going to score on us and that we would get kickouts against us, but our focus for the game was on being the team who bounced back and didn’t quit.

“Faith (Ochesky’s) game winning shot was the perfect example of why we keep fighting, scrapping and pushing   instead of hanging our heads when something doesn’t go our way.  This was a perfect game to help us practice for State next month as we work on getting our mindset right in those close matches.

“Kate (Guadagnuolo) stepped up in a big way for us against David Douglas. She’s got a powerful shot was just on fire Tuesday night,” Dunn said.

“(Olivia) Sumerfield managed to draw a lot of attention to herself on offense with her drives and was successfully dishing the ball back out to her open teammates. While Olivia is usually one of our biggest goal scorers, her role changed slightly against David Douglas to making those key passes and drawing kickouts.

“Jenni (Ruggles) played an incredible defensive game and made some crucial blocks for us.”