La Habra boys water polo team keeps rolling with non-league win over Portola

La Habra’s boys water polo team after Tuesday’s non-league victory. (PHOTO: Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone).

La Habra’s boys water polo team continued on a roll, defeating Portola 22-10 in a non-league match Tuesday afternoon at La Habra.

Garrett Carty, a junior attacker, scored nine goals to lead the Highlanders, who improved their record to 9-5 and extended their winning streak to four.

“Our goal is to come out strong, set the tone and get it done,” said Carty, who has scored 78 goals so far. “We want to be spirit breakers.”

La Habra came out aggressive building a 6-0 lead, following Carter Johnson’s goal with 2:09 remaining in the opening period. Carty scored three of the Highlanders first six goals and added his fourth goal in the final minute of the first quarter to help La Habra move out to a 7-2 lead after seven minutes of play.   

The Highlanders ALL-CIF senior goalie Jude Muci returned to action after missing 12 matches with an injury and was a major plus for the Highlanders.

“I still felt a little pain but it felt good to get back in and play again,” said Muci, who made multiple saves to foil the Bulldogs attack. “We’ll continue to build from this win.”

Carty added two more goals in the second quarter and sophomore Logan Fernandez and Grady Abell each added a goal as the Highlanders took an 11-5 halftime lead. 

La Habra dominated the third quarter outscoring Portola 7-3 to break the game open to take an 18-8 lead after three quarters. Carty and freshman Caleb Gonzales each scored two goals to lead the Highlanders.

“Last weekend we played in our La Habra Tournament and we didn’t play as well as we are capable,” said La Habra senior attacker Hayden Flores, who scored two goals in the match, including the Highlanders first goal of the game. “Our goal today was to keep the pedal to the metal and not let up and that’s what we did.”

“Overall, it was a good match for us,” said La Habra Coach Mitch Carty. “We came out fast and played good defense and our counter attack was excellent. Our strong defense helps set up our offense and having our goalie, Jude (Muci), back is a huge help. He probably makes a seven or eight goal difference when he’s playing, he’s that good. We need him because we have one more non-league game before we start league play next week.”  

Portola (9-6) was led by Elliot LeBlond who scored four goals. Sri Kesanam and Lachlan Nees each added two goals to complete the Bulldogs scoring.

“We didn’t know a lot about La Habra coming in here, but knew this was going to be a difficult match because La Habra is a disciplined team and they’re smart,” said Portola Coach Kate Avery. “We played six matches over the weekend, so we may have been feeling it a bit. We definitely did not play our best, but no excuses. We need to get ready because our first league match is next Tuesday.”