La Habra was led by (from left) Carter Johnson, Brandon Young and Garrett Carty in Tuesday’s win. (PHOTO: Tom Connolly, For OC Sports Zone).
La Habra’s boys water polo team recorded a 19-6 non-league victory over Fullerton in its season opener Tuesday afternoon at La Habra.
Junior Garrett Carty and sophomore Carter Johnson each scored four goals each to pace the Highlanders. Freshman goalkeeper Brandon Young was strong in the net for La Habra.
“We had a good counter attack game today,” said Carty. “We have spent a lot of time in practice working hard on our defense and we take a lot of pride in it.”
“It’s our first match of the season and our first win and we had a lot of fun,” said Johnson, who scored a career-high four goals. “It’s always a good feeling when you apply what you work on in practice into the game.”
Carty scored two goals in the final 3:25 of the first quarter to give the Highlanders a 5-2 edge after one period. Johnson scored two of La Habra’s five goals in the second quarter to propel the Highlanders to an 11-4 halftime advantage. La Habra added seven more goals in the third period.
Grady Abell and Luke Magana each added three goals a piece for the Highlanders, who handed the Red Hawks (2-1) their first loss of the season.
This week Young was called up to the varsity team to replace injured All-CIF goalkeeper Jude Muci.
“I was really nervous before the game; I kept thinking about it all day in school, but I got a lot of support from my team and as the game when on I became much more relaxed,” Young added.
“We played solid defense and had a strong counter attack today,” said La Habra Coach Mitch Carty. “We needed to play like that today to support Brandon (Young). He’s a freshman and it was his first high school game and he did a great job. In addition, I think we had something like seven or eight different guys score today, so that shows that we have a lot of weapons.”
Muci, a four-year starter, suffered an injury recently and Carty said he is taking it slowly to make sure Muci fully recovers before he returns.
Will Cazares and Rocco Alvarino each scored two goals a piece to lead Fullerton.
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