Two weeks ago, many of Choate interscholastic teams traveled up to the northern Massachusetts to face one of its biggest athletic rivals, Phillips Academy Andover. After the tiring two-hour journey, the Wild Boars fought hard against the Big Blue to continue their success. Yet most of the squads failed to seize victory; specifically, among the eight varsity-level interscholastic teams, Boys Water Polo was the only varsity squad to defeat Andover. In fact, the boys outplayed the opponent and won by the score of 17-8.
Led by co-captains Ray Li ’08 and Johnny Whitney ’08, and Coaches Todd Currie, Mike Velez, and Carey Turnquest, the Water Polo team is enjoying a fairly good season record so far (4-4). Although the team has lost to a couple of good teams including Hotchkiss School, Suffield Academy, Phillips Exeter Academy and Deerfield Academy, it also beat strong squads such as Loomis Chaffee, Hopkins, Phillip Academy Andover and Northfield Mount Hermon.
At Andover, the Water Polo team started off the game very well by scoring three goals consecutively within a minute and a half. The first goals were scored by Aasheesh Paliwal ’08, Dan Fallahi ’09 and Johnny Whitney ’08. Though the Big Blue took a time-out to organize its offense and defense, the Boars did not stop scoring more goals. Dan Fallahi put two more in for a hat trick and the team finished the first period strong with a score of 8-1. In the second period, as Phillips Academy started to get back into the game with scoring two goals early in the period, the Wild Boars seemed to be slowing down a little bit; however, Johnny Whitney ’08 re-organized the team and completed his hat-trick. Then, Miles Cozart ’09 added another goal, and the score was 13-3 by the end of the first half.
The Boars began the third period with a goal by Ray Li ’08, and it seemed as if the game was almost over. Yet, the Big Blue did not give up. While Co-Captain Ray Li ’08 was ejected, Andover put three more goals into Choate’s cage. They had more opportunities to score, but Matt Inglis ’09, one of the players the team had expected to have great impact on its play, made fantastic saves and stopped Andover from taking the lead of the game. The boars finished the period with a score of 15-6. In the last period of the game, Johnny Whitney managed to score two more goals into Andover’s net while the Big Blue also scored two goals into Choate’s cage.
After the game, Max Mullen ’08 said, “The team finally had a statement win. Awareness was key to this win; all players were aware of what was going on, which led to key steals and break-aways” explained Mullen. “It also helps to have our Canadian stud in cage” referring to Matt Inglis ’09. “It feels awesome to be the only Choate team to beat Andover.” However, he emphasized that the team “still has room to improve” on the road to New England’s and in order to continue their success in the future. The Choate Varsity Water Polo Team plays Hotchkiss School at Larry Hart Pool this Weekend, October 20th. Hotckiss will prove to be a challenge as the Bearcats enter the game with an impressing record of 5-2, with key victories over Andover and Loomis Chaffee.
