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Flintridge Sacred Heart polo’s defense sets tone in victory against Glendale

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GLENDALE — When the Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy water polo team found the going rough inside, it went outside.

In the early going of Wednesday’s nonleague match against Glendale, the Tologs couldn’t get much going on offense around the Nitros’ cage. So, instead of trying to pound the ball inside, the Sacred Heart shooters began a long-range assault, which worked to a tee.

Capitalizing on that shooting, the Tologs took an early lead and cruised to an easy 11-3 victory at Glendale.

“What Glendale did was they crashed on our set player, which we know a lot of teams are going to do against us,” Tologs Coach Carlos Ponce said. “So we moved our set out and we played more of an outside game. Once our team gets comfortable, they can make those long shots.

“The last two mounts we have been working on our shooting and we have some girls who can put the ball in from a distance.”

It was the second straight blowout win for Flintridge Sacred Heart (2-0), which opened the season Monday with a 15-2 nonleague victory against Burbank.

The defense never let Glendale (0-2) get into any kind of offensive rhythm. Spearheaded by goalkeeper Trisha Canessa, who had 11 saves and stopped a 5-meter penalty shot, the Tologs shut out the Nitros in the second and third quarters.

“I wouldn’t be anything without my team and they really play great in front of me,” Canessa said. “We all work really well together and I kind of feed off them. We have started off pretty well so far, but I think that we can still get better as a team.”

Flintridge Sacred Heart was led by Emily Gray, who had a match-high three goals to go along with six steals. Teammates Sarah Peterson, Allie Rieder and Zoe Drobenko added two goals apiece.

The Tologs scored the first two goals of the match before Glendale answered back with a score from Arpa Shahbazian to make it 2-1 with 1:17 left in the first quarter. Drobenko then scored with 44 seconds remaining to give the Tologs a 3-1 advantage after one.

In the second quarter, Glendale missed all six of its shots from the field. The Tologs took advantage, tallying two goals to take a 5-1 lead into halftime.

The Nitros hit the post four times in the opening half and missed two 5-meter shots in the match.

“We all have a goal in mind and I’m hoping that they’re keeping that goal in mind,” Glendale Coach Casey Sripramong said. “The goal for us is to play teams that are better than us, so we can learn and hopefully we can get better.

“I can see improvement from out first game to this one, but we still have a lot to work on and we are still learning.”

Sacred Heart turned it on in the third quarter, outscoring the Nitros, 4-0, and headed to the fourth quarter leading, 9-1.

The Nitros received fourth-quarter goals from Amanda Briones and Erika Aivazi.

“Our main focus is defense,” Ponce said. “We know there will be times where our offense might struggle and we will have to rely on our defense to keep us in games. I want our defense to be focused and top-notch, and I think we’re on our way.”

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