On the sunny evening of Oct. 2, 2025, the Foothill Technology High School Dragons (Foothill Tech) boys water polo team took to the water to take on the Cate School (Cate) in a vital league matchup. Although the Dragons fought hard, even sinking two hard-earned goals, the Cate offensive strength proved hard to overcome, leading to a crushing defeat of 3-14.
The game started immediately on a low note for the Dragons, with Cate winning the sprint and starting with possession. Cate went on to secure the first goal of the game within the first minute. After a failed pass by the Dragons, Cate scored again after a long ball from their goalkeeper, followed in quick succession by a third goal.
The Dragons looked to capitalize with a long pass from Gavin Ingold ‘27 to Logan Sholl ‘29, but the shot from Sholl was blocked. Continued attacks by the Cate offensive strength resulted in a 0-4 gap in score at the end of the first quarter.
Quarter two proceeded similarly to the first, after Cate won the sprint and immediately took the offensive. A save from goalkeeper Elijah Spencer ‘26 brought momentum for the Dragons. Conner Morris ‘27 pushed the Dragon’s offense forward with a long ball to Liddell, but the Cate goalkeeper surged forward to intercept the throw. The Cate offense pushed forward once again, but their offensive attempts were foiled by Ingold. Ingold assisted Liddell with a pass, who nailed a shot into the top right corner for Foothill Tech’s first goal of the game with 2:52 remaining in the quarter.
After the game, Sholl commented on the Dragons’ play, saying, “We played as good as we could of in the situation…we especially need to work on our shooting.”
Although the Dragons fell behind 1-4, the momentum appeared to be shifting with strong Foothill defense. However, even after a successful offense by the Dragons, Cate scored again after a deflection by Foothill Tech. With four seconds left in the quarter, Cate scored again to make the score 1-6 at the end of the half.
The Dragons started off quarter three strong, winning the sprint and maintaining possession. However, a long shot by Liddell with the shot clock winding down gave the ball over to Cate. Cate immediately capitalized on the out-of-position defense of Foothill Tech, scoring a shot with 6:48 remaining, and another goal quickly followed by Cate.
With the ball back, Foothill Tech sought to come back on the offensive, but a foul called on Morris ruined their momentum. Goalkeeper Spencer deflected the shot from Cate; however, Cate capitalized on the deflection and threw the ball into the back of the net. Cate scored three goals in quick succession after a breakdown in the Dragon’s communication, and the quarter ended 1-11 in favor of Cate.
Entering the fourth quarter, the Dragons had a lot of work to do to hold a chance of victory. Foothill won the sprint and began the quarter with possession. After losing possession, a behind-the-back shot from Cate caught Spencer off guard, advancing the score to 1-12. Foothill Tech coach Mike Hendrickson called a timeout in an attempt to rally, but the Cate momentum was unstoppable. Cate scored a quick goal soon after. Ingold pressed onto the offense and passed the ball across the goal for an easy shot by Liddell, taking the score to 2-13. Hendrickson called a second timeout with 56 seconds remaining. However, a late shot from Morris rebounded off the crossbar, after which Cate scored a final goal with seven seconds on the clock.
After the game, Ingold was upbeat, saying, “I feel we played decent. Cate is a really hard opponent, but we still could have done better … we had pretty good six [players] on five [players]; we scored twice off of that…that was really good and we can continue that throughout the season and into CIF [California Interscholastic Federation].” The Foothill Tech boys water polo team plays again in a match versus Malibu High School (Malibu) on Oct. 7 at Malibu.
