James Logan’s Varsity girls water polo team defeated Irvington on October 10th at Logan High School, with an end score of 14-2. In the beginning, Irvington was competing well and kept the score close. In the second half, however, Logan began to rack up points that ultimately resulted in their win.

The first quarter started out evenly, with both teams playing at high intensity. Logan and Irvington seemed equally matched; both teams had maintained a winning streak throughout the season so far. Halfway through the quarter, Logan managed to slip through Irvington’s defenses and score a point, but the Lady Vikings were quick to retaliate with a goal by Peyton Schmitz (10).

The second quarter was a turning point in the game. Logan players used a new tactic in which they swam close to the Irvington goal. This proved to be very effective for Logan and led to them scoring many points.

“Once the momentum was on their side, we never did anything to disrupt it,” Coach Juan Madrigal said. “Our team… never had that play that they needed to get back to the game.”

Goalie Rudra Hariharan (9) expressed her surprise for this new tactic.

“They have a different way of playing,” Hariharan said. “They’re more about shooting near to the goal rather than outside shooters.”

Irvington made attempts to score but were driven back by Logan’s defense. By the end of the second quarter, Logan led by a score of six to one.

The gap between the scores widened even more in the third and fourth quarters. Jane Zucker (12)  managed to score a second point for Irvington, but Logan’s goalie was able to block all of Irvington’s other attempts to score.

“We got discouraged really easily really fast, and I think that we got scared,” Mariah Hernandez (10) said. “We’re going to play them again soon maybe either MVALs or a tournament that we have coming up this weekend. Hopefully, we can learn from our mistakes and step it up.”

Irvington will be playing in the MVAL tournament next week on October 23rd at Newark Memorial High School.