By Mike Finnerty
mike.finnerty@surewestsports.com
Last year the Rio Americano Raiders captured their first boy’s water polo section title in eight years, and Saturday at the Roseville Aquatic Center, the Raiders made it back-to-back Division II championships with a 9-2 win over the El Camino Eagles.
“It was a tightly contested match to begin with, two great teams, two of the best teams in the section if you ask me,” said Rio Americano head coach Tyson Frenn. “We just had to shut out #4 Nick Jordan, and we did a great job on that.”
The Raiders took a 1-0 first quarter lead on goal by Johnny Neumann, and that lone goal would hold late in the second half when El Camino sophomore Josh Jordan scored to tie it at 1-1.
Rio Americano went on second half scoring tear that would see the Raiders build the lead to 5-1 after the third and as high as 8-1 with 1:20 left in the third period.
“In the third quarter we just came out fired up,” said Frenn. “That was our best quarter we had all season. We came out strong, got 3 or 4 in that third quarter, we were able to pull ahead and I was able to get all my seniors in at the end. We had been in that situation before. We had been in championship game of tournaments this season, we played against some of the toughest teams in the state, and we have been there before.”
Woodbury, Jake Hastie, and John Price led the Raiders with two goals each, with Neumann, Hunter Simons, and Jack Dubois each adding a goal on the afternoon.
“We relied on our seniors. Our seniors were awesome,” said Frenn.