By GERARDO RECINOS
Martinez Tribune
Concord and Alhambra’s girls took to the pool on Wednesday afternoon as the sun started to descend and played on of the more physical games of water polo that pool has ever seen.
Concord’s Lady Minutemen were victorious by a score of 11-8, but the 28 minutes of water polo that took place on Sept. 21 were some of the grittiest and toughest we’ve ever seen.
The two teams looked evenly matched in the first quarter, but there were some signs that the physicality of Concord would prevail. The Lady Dogs were without Katie Christman, who is a two-year starter, but battled all the same.
The first four minutes of play saw the two teams trade goals, with both of Alhambra’s coming from an exclusion or a penalty drawn by Daria Dragicevic. Hayley London put the first away, while Amanda Beattie scored the second from five-meters.
Alhambra’s first crack in the armor came when Concord’s Karlee Kronquist scored the first and second of her seven goals on the afternoon.
However Alhambra would scored on a kick out drawn by Sarah Exner to keep things close at the end of the opening period of play.
In the second quarter we saw more of Concord’s physicality on display, and it helped them jump out to a 7-4 lead before the interval. It was a recurring theme in the match. Concord wouldn’t let Alhambra get near them through sheer strength.
Anytime the Bulldogs got themselves into a solid shooting lane, it seemed at least one Concord player would crash quickly and alter the shot just enough to allow a defender to deflect the shot out of harms way.
Not that Dragecevic was going to give up. Her time high five goals kept Alhambra in the contest and really she was the player who gave Concord the most trouble. She created shots out of nothing, and scored when she had no business doing so. She even facilitated a few goals.
The real knockout punch however came when in the forth quarter Kronquist scored her seventh goal of the afternoon. With two minutes on the clock Alhambra would need to scored four times.
Time wasn’t on their side. Dragecevic scored twice in the final two minutes, but they were both consolations, because the match had already been decided.
The Bulldog girls will take on College Park on Sept. 28, the match will be their third Diablo Athletic League match.
