The Palo Alto Vikings came through with a 7-5 victory over the girls waterpolo Archbishop Mitty Monarchs in the St. Francis Autumn Invitational at Sacred Heart on Friday. The Vikings came back from a 3-2 halftime deficit, taking advantage of several second-half defensive penalties by Archbishop Mitty.
A high-scoring first quarter saw Palo Alto senior fielders Christy Campbell and Hallie Kennan each score to match Mitty’s pair of scores. The Viking defense blocked its opponent closely but could not hold off Mitty’s passing attack, which allowed the Lions to take shots close to the Viking goal.
Mitty took advantage of those open routes, scoring for a third time with 4:37 remaining in the half. Paly limited Mitty to just one goal, but still trailed at the end of the half, 3-2.
Beginning in the second half, the Vikings focused on offense and passed the ball often, making it difficult for Mitty’s swimmers to keep up. Swimming ahead of Mitty, the Vikings struck early as senior fielder Lizzie Abbott scored to tie the game with 4:56 remaining in the third quarter.
“I’ve got to hand it to Palo alto,” Mitty coach Scott Blake said after the game, “they just took advantage where we made penalties and mistakes,”
But Mitty marched the length of the water on the very next drive, scoring just seconds later to retake the lead, 4-3. The Lions executed the drive with no offensive fouls and passed several times over a trailing Paly defense.
The Vikings attempted drives toward the Monarch cage during in the next two minutes, but steals by Mitty quickly ended those. After blocking shots on two consecutive Mitty attempts, Palo Alto senior fielder Amanda Wong led the Vikings downfield for a tying score with 2:53 remaining in the third quarter.
The Vikings appeared to be holding even with the Monarchs for the next few minutes, but soon surrendered another goal to trail 5-4 for the rest of the third quarter. The score was the last for Mitty on the day.
Paly began its comeback bid in the fourth quarter, with Wong and Kennan leading the offensive charge with the help of several penalties by the Mitty defense focused simply on getting the ball back in its possession.
“Their defense was just rude,” senior fielder Xiomara Pinto said, “They made so many penalties.”
Wong scored her second goal just one minute into the final period, taking a shot from the right side after slipping through a thin defense near the Mitty goal, to pull the Paly even at 5-5.
Kennan took control from there, scoring again for the Vikings with 4:38 remaining in the game. After battling through an increasingly desperate Mitty defense that kicked and clawed Viking passers in an effort to regain possession, she gave Paly the lead, 6-5. The Monarchs’ aggression repeatedly drew foul calls, but Palo Alto coach Cory Olcott felt that only forced the Vikings to play better.
“[Mitty’s defense] was very aggressive,” Olcott said, “that was the best thing about how [we] played. We just got right in there and made the steals and shots.”
The Vikings final goal came three minutes later on free shot by Kennan, who was fouled by a Mitty defender clawing for the ball. Less than a minute later, Kennan left the game with just over a minute remaining when she was punched in the eye by a Mitty fielder. Paly called a timeout and then held the Monarchs scoreless to secure the two-goal win.
The Vikings will next take on Fremont High School on Sept. 26 in Fremont.