YUCAIPA — Yucaipa High School boys water polo coach Ty Hudson has long preached the importance of movement.
Monday afternoon, the Thunderbirds used movement of both body and ball to take control against Murrieta Valley and walk away with a 13-7 victory in a nonleague showdown between Inland Empire powerhouses at Crafton Hills College.
Yucaipa (13-4) outscored Murrieta Valley 6-1 in the second period, with the goals being scored by six different players.
“That’s how we like to play,” Hudson said. “Ball movement, player movement is a big part of our strategy. We look to move the ball around and find those drivers…. And when we play like that and execute the plan, we’re pretty hard to stop at the offensive end.”
Murrieta Valley (7-5) was able to match the Thunderbirds early, with Titus Elliott scoring twice to give the Nighthawks leads of 1-0 and 3-2 in the opening quarter. Bradley Hull helped Yucaipa tie the score at 3 with 1:31 left in that period.
Yucaipa used its pressure to disrupt Murrieta Valley’s offense and held their opponent scoreless for nearly 7 minutes across the first and seconds quarters. The Thunderbirds, meanwhile, executed their offense game plan to near perfection in the second period, with Tate Hudson, Ryder Romain, Axton Smith, Harrison Saluja, Blake Minkler and Hull scoring goals.
“We didn’t come out very strong in that first quarter,” Tate Hudson said. “So we talked things over at the quarter break. All we needed to do is move in the water and move the ball a lot better. I think we did amazing job of that the final three quarters.”
Murrieta Valley bounced back offensively in the third quarter, as Josiah Remmick, Logan Fox and Elliot scored goals during that period. However, the closest the Nighthawks got during the second half was four goals (three times).
“They are extremely good at attacking the goal and attacking space,” Murrieta Valley coach Bryan Lynton said about the T-Birds. “And defending that is not really our strong suit…. We play Yucaipa every year, so it wasn’t a surprise. We knew what to expect, but Ty does a great job getting his players to execute. We also didn’t capitalize of some of our scoring opportunities.”
Yucaipa held Murrieta Valley scoreless over the final seven minutes to put the finishing touches on another victory.
Tate Hudson and Smith each scored a goal in the fourth quarter to complete their hat tricks. Minkler and Hull finished with two goals apiece for the T-Birds. Cutler Henrie registered six saves in the cage.
Elliott scored three goals to lead the way for Murrieta Valley, while Leif Pederson added a pair of goals for the Nighthawks. Cannon Smith finished with eight blocks in the cage,
