Cleveland wins City Section Open Division boys’ water polo title again

Last season, Cleveland High’s boys water polo team ended a dynasty.

On Wednesday it continued another, shutting down Eagle Rock 9-4 at Valley College to capture its third City Section championship in a row and second straight in the Open Division.

Team captain Jordan Tarlow scored three goals, Charlie Rinsky tallied two and Arthur Petrosian netted a par of five-meter shots for the top-seeded Cavaliers, who won the Division I crown in 2023, then snapped Palisades’ streak of 11 consecutive titles with a 15-4 victory in the same pool last fall.

“I’m the only one whose been on the team for four years and I got a lot of my friends to join,” said Tarlow, who missed the first month of the season due to sickness and had to watch his team lose 11 of its first 12 games—five of them by a single goal. “I’d say it’s harder to defend the title because now we know we can lose it. I hope we can keep it going. Wherever I’m at college next year I’ll fly back here for the final.”

The No. 1-seeded Cavaliers (13-17) upped their lead to 4-0 on Tarlow’s last goal early in the second quarter, after which he was triple-teamed. In the second half, Cleveland concentrated on defense to suppress any hope Eagle Rock had of a comeback.

“We’re a way better-knit family this year,” Tarlow added. “I made sure we weren’t cocky. I held a team bonding potluck at my house. In water polo the biggest thing is team chemistry. My freshman year we had an insanely talented team but we went nowhere because we all had issues with each other.”

Reed Winters scores one of his two goals for Palisades, which held off Granada Hills 8-7 in the Division I final.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Cleveland goalie Allen McWeeny made 11 saves as did his counterpart Oliver Loeb of Eagle Rock. Atzin Lopez, Caleb Yetter, Zolin Lopez and Pablo Galante each scored a goal for the second-seeded Eagles.

Rinsky scored the Cavaliers’ final goal with 1:25 left to put his team back up by five and afterward the junior described he and Tarlow — his best friend on the team — as the ‘dynamic duo.’

“Our coach warned us before the season that all these other teams are coming for us,” Rinsky said. “We were struggling without Jordan and there were frustrating times but as the season progressed we began to trust each other more and right before league started we won some games which really helped us mentally.”

Despite its recent dominance in the section, Palisades was not one of the four teams selected for the Open Division bracket this fall and settled for the Division I title, holding off Granada Hills 8-7 thanks to the cat-quick reflexes of goalie Aidan Moriarty, who made 12 saves — including four on one play — and thwarted a five-meter attempt in the third quarter.

Hudson Mirzadeh had five goals, Reed Winters had two and Sean Ellis added one for the third-seeded Dolphins, who have won 18 section titles, including the six straight they won in the 1970s before the sport was discontinued until 2008.

Jason Bowden tallied three goals, Sebastian Villagrana added two and Andrew Flores stopped five shots for the top-seeded Highlanders, who trailed 6-3 at halftime.

Villagrana nearly tied it on Granada Hills’ last possession, but his shot from the right side caromed off the crossbar with eight seconds left.