PHOTOS: Northwood edges University for fourth consecutive league victory

Michael Abshier scores the game-winning goal for Northwood against Uni Tuesday. (Photos courtesy Troy Witt).

Northwood High School’s boys water polo team won its fourth consecutive Pacific Coast League match, defeating Universty 14-13 Tuesday at Uni.

The Timberwolves (13-5 overall) got off to a strong start with a 4-1 lead after the first quarter. University battled back with a seven goal second period and tied the game 8-8 at half.

After that, it was a very back and forth game up until the last few possessions when Northwood junior Michael Abshier closed the game with a goal from an assist by junior Ethan Chen.

To see the slide show, click on the first photo:

Ethan Chen of Northwood catches and shoots for a goal on the outside.

Iacopo Cagnoni of Northwood gets a steal around the perimeter.

Northwood's Dean Witt counters and scores one of his two goals.

Abshier led the way with seven goals, two assists, three steals and five ejections drawn.

Five other players contributed for Northwood. Senior Iacopo Cagnoni had two goals, senior Christian Thorpe and Chen had one goal each, sophomore Dean Witt had two goals and sophomore Gavin Dang had one goal. Cagnoni had a team high four assists and three steals. 

“Ironically, we came out with a lot of intensity and confidence at the beginning of the game,” said Northwood Coach Kyle Kim-E. “But Uni made some good adjustments and we struggled in the second quarter. After that quarter though, our team did a much better job of making both offensive and defensive adjustments that were just enough to get the win.

“I don’t think it was our best game, but it had a lot of good learning opportunities. We’ll watch the film and try to fix our individual and team mistakes.”

Kim-E said he likes the progress his team is making.

“I’m still impressed though with how our team has progressed over the season,” he said. “In the beginning of the season, I think a number of teams overlooked us and thought we were going to be too young and too inexperienced. But, we have big tests coming up with Irvine, Beckman, and Portola.

“I think those games will give us a better idea on how we stack up, but are also perfect timing. We’ll play some tough games, head into the Steve Pal Tournament, and then prep for the league Carousel. I like that we’re finishing up our season with some of our toughest games, which will hopefully prepare us as much as possible for the league carousel and playoffs.”