Water Polo Splashes Past Pirates

Since league play started the toughest competition Palisades High water polo players have gotten has been from each other. With several opponents forfeiting, the Dolphins hadn’t seen much game  action except for scrimmaging until last Wednesday when they traveled to league foe Venice for a rematch of Palisades’ 14-8 home win in mid-December.

The second verse was much like the first as the Dolphins swam away with a 12-6 victory over their archrivals to stay in the driver’s seat in the league standings.

Last Friday, Palisades was back at Maggie Gilbert Aquatic Center to take on San Pedro and the Dolphins made it a pool party, scoring early and often to put the Pirates in the deep end quickly.

Mardell Ramirez finished  with eight goals and Genesis Carballo and Jackie Au each had three goals and Roya Visconti, Lilly Ramos and Sofia Sioris each added one goal in the 17-5 win. Goalie Nicole Poursalimi made a five-meter stop for the Dolphins, who hosted Banning yesterday and travel to West Adams on Friday.

GIRLS SOCCER

Palisades kept rolling through Western League play last week. Hadyn Peffer scored twice and Hannah De Silva, Zoe Capanna and Lulu Adams each added a goal in last Wednesday’s 5-0 victory over visiting Fairfax — the Dolphins’ seventh league shutout.

Two days later, Peffer again scored two goals and De Silva notched a third in a 3-1 home win against Hamilton that moved the Dolphins to 10-1 overall and 9-0 in league play.

First-year Coach Christian Chambers is pleased with his team’s progress from the start of the season to now. Since dropping their opener 6-0 at El Camino Real the Dolphins have outscored their opposition 43-4.

“Everyone knows their role and we’re seeing contributions from everyone,” he said. “We have better flow offensively now.”

No school from outside the San Fernando Valley has ever won the City Section’s upper division championship, but the Dolphins came close last winter under previous coach Luis Inga, losing a shootout to Granada Hills after neither team scored in regulation or overtime.

Palisades hosted Westchester yesterday and travels to University tomorrow for a 2:30 kickoff.

BOYS SOCCER

After meeting little resistance in the first round of Western League play, the Dolphins encountered their first bumps in the road last week but salvaged a pair of 1-1 draws thanks to co-captain Kavi Kashani.

On Wednesday at Fairfax, Kashani netted the equalizing goal on a penalty kick midway through the second half. Palisades missed a penalty kick in the first half and Rigo Galvez made a big stop on a breakaway to keep his team close after the host Lions scored off a throw-in at the 15-minute mark.

“We played our worst game of the season,” Palisades Coach Dave Suarez said. “We were outhustled, we looked unmotivated and guys were playing out of position because of injuries.

On Friday, the Dolphins allowed a goal in the 12th minute and needed another penalty kick goal by Kashani to tie it after teammate Josue Hernandez was fouled in the penalty area in the final minute.

Palisades (7-1-2 overall,  7-0-2 in league) remained atop the standings but winning league isn’t what concerns Suarez.

“At this point it’s all about playoff seeding,” he said. “We’re still in good shape to win league, but we can’t have any more slip ups or our seed will drop dramatically. We still may only get one home game [in the playoffs].”

The Dolphins traveled to  last-place Westchester yesterday and host third-place University on Friday.

“We have three games left and we need to win them,” Suarez said. “You want to be playing well  at the end of the season.”

Palisades began the week ranked fifth in the City Division I rankings behind El Camino Real, Monroe, Granada Hills and South Gate.