SAN ANTONIO – A berth to this year’s Region IV-6A water polo tournament was on the last line Tuesday for the Champion boys team and just to give the Chargers added motivation, they were facing their archrivals Alamo Heights.
Champion coa ch Alberto Escalante previously coached at Alamo Heights and he was especially looking forward to Tuesday’s match at Davis Natatorium.
“ It’s always a fun rivalry and knowing that I came from there made it a little more fun and added to the game for me,” Escalante said.
Champion had beaten the Mules earlier in the year and the Chargers did it again on Tuesday to advance to this year’s regional tourney.
The Chargers doubled up the Mules on Tuesday, 18-9, and remained perfect on the year at 13-0.
Champion plays in the regional semis on Saturday at the Southwest ISD Aquatic Center. The Chargers face Harlingen South at 12:45 p.m. and a win there advances them to the regional finals against the winner of the Clark-Pharr San Juan-Alamo North Saturday, 4 p.m., with a state berth up for grabs.
Champion was leading Tuesday’s match at the end of three quarters, 15-4, but the Mules made a strong push at the end and outscored the Chargers in the final quarter, 5-3, however Champion had such a big lead that it didn’t matter.
Escalante said they won the match with their defense.
“We have to rely on our defense and have to be defense heavy and understand each other’s maneuvers,” he said. “We try to play to our strengths and know that we can’t rely on one kid scoring all the goals. We have to play smart and play as a team and use the six guys in the water as one unit” Escalante said he’s excited that they have a chance to play at the state tournament in the sport’s first year as a UIL sanctioned event against 5A and 6A teams combined into 6A.
“Winning the region puts us at the state tournament so we have two games ahead of us and the goal is to win both, but we take it one game at a time, one quarter at a time,” he said.
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