Mesa water polo started fast and didn’t look back in a 15-9 win at home Wednesday against Southwestern College to improve to 12-7 including 5-1 in league play.

      In the first four minutes, team captain Joey LoMedico of Mesa scored three goals. Lomedico would finish with five goals which led all players and he now has 53 goals on the season. Seven of the nine Southwestern goals came from two players, Justin Patacsil who scored four times, and Stuart Sokil who added three goals.

      Head Coach Nathan Resch was on top of his gameplan as Mesa never surrendered the lead. At halftime they led 8-4. The third quarter virtually put the game away when Mesa went up 12-5.

      The team has been without starter Ian Murray who is out with a broken hand. He had scored 43 goals on the season before his injury. After the game he said, “After watching the teams win over Southwestern I discovered that my teammates have stepped up and shown commitment and hard work to the program and that one person doesn’t make or break a team.”

      The defense played magnificent, only allowing five goals through the first three quarters. The goalie Kale Stiverson made some great saves and had 18 total. Each time Southwestern had the ball, Mesa would be able to step up and force bad passes. They would cover up the passing lanes forcing Southwestern to hold on to the ball longer than normal. When the shot clock was winding down, Southwestern would have to either throw up a desperate shot attempt or just throw the ball to the corner so they would have time to go back on defense and set up. Mesa didn’t have many problems on offense, they had some turnovers, but for the most part they got a shot off almost every time.

      Besides Lomedico, six other players scored goals. Issac Gross and Armani Antonellis each had a pair of goals. Gross scored the fourth and fifth goals of the day for Mesa which were both pivotal in getting the momentum to favor Mesa completely. “Freshman Armani Antonellis, one of our team’s leading scorers, played solidly after rebounding from a back injury.”

     Mario Ochoa, Sean Dunn and Aaron Calimlim all scored once. Hector Sanchez scored three goals which all came at opportune times. Murray said, “Sanchez and Calimlim really stepped up big off the bench.” The sixth, ninth and 13th goal’s for Mesa were all from Sanchez. Each time he scored it gave Mesa more momentum and helped them win the game.