The Palo Alto Vikings’ Varsity water polo boys beat the Mountain View Spartans, 12-8, Tuesday at Paly. The Spartans steadily gained but Paly’s phenomenal start secured a win and ensured that Paly never fell behind.

“Mountain View is a tough team: one of the best teams in the league,” co-captain Geng Wang said. “But the team really came together and we should have won by more.”

Within the first three minutes of the first period, Paly senior co-captain Michael Fortune scored three goals in quick succession. Paly dominated the first period and ended it with a solid 4-0 lead.

“We came out strong but we need to work on keeping the pace for the entire game,” Wang said.

The Vikings scored the first two goals in the second period, increasing Paly’s lead to 6-0, but Mountain View won the second period overall. The Spartans made a strong counter act by scoring six goals to Paly’s four but at halftime the Vikings led, 8-5.

Paly defended better in the third quarter and kept its lead by scoring two goals and limiting Mountian View to one goal. The score before the final period was 10-6 in favor of Paly.

“The first and fourth periods were great but we let up in the second and third periods,” head coach Reid Particelli said.

Both Palo Alto and Mountain View scored two goals in the fourth period.

Fortune and junior Tim Wenzlau both played key roles in Paly’s victory by scoring four goals a piece. Another important player was senior goalie Will Simon, who made many saves throughout the game and helped secure a Paly victory.

Paly’s next game will be Oct. 17 at Saratoga.