Paly’s boys water polo team defeated the Monta Vista Matadors, 12-6, in its last regular season game on Thursday, Oct. 30.

Senior Tim Wenzlau scored six goals to lead the Vikings in a dominant performance during which they never trailed.

“As a captain of the team I think we performed all right today although we missed a couple of opportunities,” Wenzlau said. “I wished that the players who didn’t play as much during the year could score, but that did not happen.”

Paly got off to a quick 4-0 lead in the first period behind three goals from Wenzlau. Monta Vista never came back. After Paly scored early in the second period, Monta Vista took advantage of Paly kickouts to narrow the lead to 5-2. However, with the gap closing, the Vikings took over. Wenzlau scored twice in a span of three minutes to extend Paly’s lead to 7-2. One of the scores came from a play in which he faked out a defender and scored from outside the 5-meter mark.

Paly finished off the second period with good defense, carrying its 7-2 lead into halftime.

During the third period, Paly showcased its offensive firepower by scoring five consecutive goals to further extend its lead to 12-2. During the run, the Matadors became frustrated and began to play sloppily, missing passes to open players near the goal. The Monta Vista coach received a yellow card for arguing with official calls and disrupting the game.

Monta Vista managed to close the lead to 12-4 by the end of the third period, helped by a 5-meter penalty shot. Paly held on to win 12-6, but did not score during the fourth period.

“We would’ve liked to have worked for Thomas [Cho] more,” Wenzlau said. “There were a lot of times we did not use him in a hole set but he did do a lot of work.”

The water polo team now has its sight set on the upcoming De Anza league tournament. Paly finished third in the league this year, but first-year coach Giovanni Napolitani is confident in the team’s abilities.

“The games we lost have been very close games and it will be interesting to see how we will perform against them [those teams] during future games,” Napolitani said.

Senior goalie George Kadifa also expressed confidence going into the league tournament.

“I feel good about the future; we have had a lot of practice and we are prepared,” Kadifa said.

Paly will play against Gunn at Homestead on Tuesday in the first game of the De Anza league tournament.