Chargers Squeak by Gunn in High-Scoring Affair

The Wilcox Chargers water polo team beat the Gunn Titans 9-8 on Sept. 30 thanks in part to strong play by Heidi Dang and Allison Gardner.

An electric barrage of shooting between the Gunn Titans and the Wilcox Chargers varsity water polo squads went down to the wire Tuesday afternoon. Fortunately for fans of the visitors, Wilcox was able to play keep away for the final 15 seconds while holding the slimmest of margins, earning a hard-fought victory, 9-8.

Wilcox opened up the scoring in the opening quarter by taking a 2-0 lead. Led by captains Allison Gardner and Heidi Dang, the Chargers offense would be the least of the team’s worries on the day. Defensively, though, is where things got a little murky in the Palo Alto waters. Gunn managed to storm back with four unanswered goals. It appeared as if the Titans might take a 4-2 lead into halftime. However, a quick strike from Gardner, just 30 seconds after Gunn’s fourth goal, pulled the Chargers back within one.

Gardner’s goal right before halftime seemed to re-energize the Chargers. Elise Bignell won the sprint race to start the third quarter and Dang immediately tied the score at 4-4. From there, the two squads exchanged back-and-forth blows.

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Gunn would take a 5-4 lead, and then Dang scored again to tie things back up at five apiece. The Titans carried over a 6-5 lead into the fourth quarter, but the lead didn’t last long when Gardner tied the score 6-6 early in the fourth quarter.

The two squads would continue to swap goals. A heads-up pass from Bignell to Gardner set up another tally for the Chargers. Wilcox now had a 7-6 lead with 4:15 left on the clock. After Gunn tied things up at 7-7, it was a clutch goal from Emma Smith with 2:15 to go that put the Chargers up for good.

Dang added an insurance marker at the 1:10 mark to give the Chargers a two-goal cushion. A fluky illegal timeout ruling allowed Gunn a penalty shot goal with 14 seconds left to pull back within one, but Wilcox was able to run out the rest of the clock.

“I think at first we were pretty slow to respond to their goals, but as the game went on, we really got into the game mode,” responded Gardner after the win. “Once they started responding to our goals, we started responding right back.”

“We needed to do a better job adapting [defensively],” acknowledged Dang on getting into a shootout at both ends. “They have a lefty, and they have a couple of other strong players, and we needed to adapt to that. Defensively, we need to know to press out on those girls. Sometimes they drop, and we need to attack that drop. That’s something we have been working on a lot at practice, recognizing what the opponent is doing and trying to get an advantage over that.”

While Wilcox may not have painted a Picasso at the defensive end of the pool, goalkeeper Bo Ramsey bailed out the team’s miscues with multiple grade-A saves at key moments. The Chargers improve to 5-2 in league and 9-3 overall.

They next hop in the pool at Mountain View on Thursday, Oct. 2.