After giving up eight unanswered goals to begin the game, the Colts lost 16-5 to the Eureka Wildcats in the first game of the Lafayette-Parkway North Invitational on Friday night.
First-year coach Andrew Schonhoff knew going into the contest that the team would have to defend well against Wildcats’ powerful offense.
“Our plan was to shut down a couple of their main scorers and force the ball into weaker players’ hands,” Schonhoff said. “We played really well when we set up our defense correctly.”
By the time the Colts got a hang of their strategy though, Eureka had done its damage. At the end of the first quarter, Central was already trailing by eight goals.
“We got off to a really slow start in the first quarter. Eureka caught us sleeping and really took it to us with their fast break,” Schonhoff said. “After that first quarter, the team settled down a bit and started playing smarter.”
Following the rough start, it was sophomore Tess Coulson who got the momentum rolling for the Colts early in the second quarter. Coulson buried a hard shot into the top right corner of the goal to put the team on the scoreboard for the first time.
“We were countering and [senior Ben McIntyre] passed me the ball. I walked it in and shot from 5 or 6 meters out,” Coulson said. “I thought it was a nice shot because I had a lot of time to set it up.”
It did not take much longer for other members of the Central offense to come to life. Sophomore Chris Chen, who is playing water polo for the first time this year, was able to put a shot past the Eureka goaltender. Junior Natsu Gavin, a co-captain, also added two goals in the quarter. But the Wildcats still carried a 12-4 lead into the half.
Gavin found the back of the net one more time in the third quarter, but it would end up being the last goal the Colts would score. Nonetheless, the players continued to stand their ground on defense.
“I feel like the team as a whole did a real quality job on defense towards the end of the game, but there is always room for improvement,” McIntyre said. “The team needs to work on reacting more quickly to the opposing team’s counter-attack.”
When the final horn sounded, the team was dealt its seventh loss in just as many games this season. Even though the Colts have yet to win a game this year, Schonhoff is confident that given some more experience, his squad will prevail in the near future.
“We’re starting to realize how important it is that all seven players in the pool need to be working together instead of depending on a couple players,” Schonhoff said. “These players are very resilient. They have a great attitude and have done nothing but improve after each game.”
The Colts are scheduled to play three more today as part of the tournament. They will face off with John Burroughs, Parkway North, and Parkway South at 9:30 am, 12:45 pm, and 6:45 pm, respectively. Competition will be held at Parkway North.
