North Eugene’s pool proved to be too much for Sweet Home boys water polo squad Friday as the Huskies fell 5-2 to the Highlanders.
The girls could not field enough players and had to forfeit, although they did play a five-on-five scrimmage that gave them some water time, Coach Craig Martin said.
The boys game turned out to be a defensive battle, as the score indicates, he said.
“We were in their pool and, quite frankly, we just couldn’t adjust,” Martin said of the River Road Recreation Center facility where North Eugene plays. “It was a really shallow pool and it was hard for us to play our offensive sets.”
Sweet Home is used to deeper water, in which the Huskies get the ball to their stronger players, who can do damage under those circumstances. The North Eugene pool allows the shallow end goalie to walk nearly to mid-pool, Martin said, and it made it difficult to score.
Sweet Home trailed 2-0 after the first and second periods, but evened the score at 2-2 in the third before suffering breakdowns in the final period that allowed the hosts three more goals.
“We match up pretty well against them but we had some good opportunities to shoot and some good opportunities for fast breaks but what we forgot was to adjust to the goalie, who could literally go out to half-pool and steal the ball away,” Martin said.
Sweet Home’s scores came from Cory Martin and Gabe Gunselman.
The Huskies will play a Homecoming match against Woodburn Friday, with a girls game at 4 p.m. if Sweet Home can field a full team, and the boys at 5 p.m.
“This will be a good game for us,” Craig Martin said. ” We played Woodburn relatively early in the season. We’ve improved and I’m sure they’ve improved. It should be a pretty exciting game.”
Sweet Home’s last home game will be Wednesday, Oct. 21, against Corvallis.