Zach Senator, Mitchell Kim and Griffin Koffman score in the fourth quarter.
Zach Senator talks about Palisades’ 11-9 City finals victory over Birmingham.
“I believe that we will win!” “I believe that we will win!”
That was the mantra senior captain Griffin Koffman and the Palisades High boys water polo team chanted over and over again at an ever-increasing volume before diving in to start Wednesday night’s City Section final at East Valley High in North Hollywood.
Once the game began, the Dolphins showed that along with belief they possessed the will and skill to hold off top-seeded Birmingham 11-9, capturing their third consecutive championship and declaring themselves a dynasty.
“Not to sound cocky, but we thought we might have it much easier than that but they came out and brought a fight,” said Zach Senator, who paced the Dolphins with five goals, four drawn penalties and four key steals — several in the final frenzied minute that sealed the victory. “We didn’t play as well as we should’ve but at the end we started playing team defense and we tired them out, which we knew would happen because all of us also swim.”
It was the Dolphins’ second finals triumph over Birmingham, which was seeking its fifth City title and first since 2011. Palisades defeated the Patriots 13-10 to win its first title two years ago and beat El Camino Real 11-6 to repeat last year.
There was a problem with the heater at East Valley High’s pool that morning but it was fixed in time for the final to be played as scheduled. If the water was cold, the Dolphins brought the heat early, scoring just over one minute into the game on a five-meter shot by Mitchell Kim. After Senator found the left corner of the net from long range, Kim maneuvered behind the defense and converted a breakaway to make it 3-0.
While Palisades looked sharp, Birmingham struggled to find its offensive flow, failing to convert on back-to-back 6-on-5 situations. Senior goalie Blake Levine saved a five-meter skip shot by James Gillis, who got his team on the score sheet on a breakaway late in the first quarter.
Kim, Kian Lotfi and Senator each scored in the second quarter to give second-seeded Palisades a 6-4 halftime lead.
“This means a lot to me because I kind of knew that I have to perform if we’re going to win,” Kim said. “Before, I couldn’t get in the water — I sat on the bench, but I played a big part in winning it this year.”
The Patriots started fast in the third quarter, tying it 6-6 on two quick goals by Gillis, but Senator scored on a man-advantage at the halfway mark of the quarter to put the Dolphins back in front. Birmingham’s Joseph Rivera answered 22 seconds later to level the score but Senator arced the ball over goalie Ilya Parkhomenka, making it 8-7 Palisades heading to the fourth quarter.
“We were expecting to be up by more but we knew the fourth quarter was ours,” Koffman said. “That’s all conditioning from hell week that Coach [Adam Blakis] puts us through every year.”
Levine made 11 saves, Kim scored four goals and Lotfi had a goal, four assists and four steals while playing air-tight defense on Gillis, the Patriots’ career record-holder in goals. Koffman tallied the Dolphins’ last goal to give them an 11-8 lead with 2:37 left.
It was a satisfying ending to an injury-plagued season for the Dolphins, who pulled off the three-peat despite losing last year’s “Core Four” starters to graduation. Now the challenge is to make it four in a row.
“I don’t know what the secret is, but me, Mitchell and Kian are working really well together and hopefully we can do it again next year,” said Senator, who afterwards joined his teammates and coaches in a celebratory dip, medals and all. “We’ll play in the offseason, personally I’m going to try to get stronger and we’re just going to keep getting better. We lose Blake but we have Ross Aronson who is a really good goalie so I think we’ll be even better next year.”
— Steve Galluzzo
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