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Champion water polo finds silver lining at state tourney

The Boerne Champion water polo team capped a great season on Saturday evening after the Chargers finished second in the state.
Champion water polo finds silver lining at state tourney
The Boerne Champion water polo team poses with the second-place trophy after the Chargers finished second in the state at this year’s UIL state tournament to earn silver medals. </br> Star photo by Kerry Barboza

The Boerne Champion water polo team capped a great season on Saturday evening after the Chargers finished second in the state.

Clute Brazoswood defeated Champion in the state title game, 19-10, to hand the Chargers its only loss all year.

Champion ends the season at 16-1 with their only loss coming in the state championship match. Chargers coach Alberto Escalante said that’s something to be proud of, especially since this is the first year for the UIL to host the sport.

“This is the steppingstone and for Step 1 to be the state championship game, you can’t write a better story other than winning it all,” he said. “Losing in a state title game, you have to have perspective that you’re still the second-best team in the state of Texas.”

Saturday’s title tilt at Davis Natatorium was back and forth early on. The Chargers were up 3-2 late in the first but it was their only lead of the entire match, although it was tied six times in the first half.

The first quarter ended knotted up at 3-3 and the last tie came in the match came at 6-6 with 2:00 to go in the first half, but after that, the Chargers were playing catch-up.

Clute Brazoswood won the second quarter 5-3 to take an 8-6 lead into halftime and started to pull away in the third quarter.

The Brazoswood school took the third, 5-2, and then secured the title in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Chargers in the final stanza, 6-2.

“We had four starters get into foul trouble and foul out and they outmatched us then. We were playing to contain, and they got a lot of points on us, and we were trying to play catch-up,” Escalante said. “It’s hard to play from behind and we did what we could, we fought, but they were the better team and well coached. We ran out of steam and that’s okay.”

Bexon Harrison scored 5 of the team’s 10 goals on 11 shots, while Will Harrison had 2 goals and Emi Martinez-Galarza, Robert Perez-Puente and Ian Rutledge finished with 1 goal apiece.

Palmer Guerra, Will Harrison, Martinez-Galarza and Bexon Harrison totaled 1 assist apiece and Perez-Puente tallied 3 assists.

Ethan Roecker was in goal all 28 minutes for the Chargers and came up with 9 saves.

Anthony Sury scored 6 goals for Clute Brazoswood and was named tournament MVP.

Seniors on this year’s Champion team include Cole Breckenridge, Griff Orloff, Palmer Guerra, Emi Martinez-Galarza, Matthew Jeffery and Ethan Handley.

Escalante said it was a great season.

“I wasn’t sad with how it ended but that it ended,” he said. “It’s a special group of boys and a tough pill to swallow but second in the state isn’t too shabby either. They gave it their all and they played with heart, so we’ll take it. It was a great run.”

State semifinals

Before advancing to the finals, the Chargers defeated Richmond Foster earlier in the day in the state semifinals, 11-7.

“We played a phenomenal Foster team with a lot of history and coming up with that win was huge,” Escalante said.

Champion did most of its damage in the second and fourth quarters when they outscored Foster, 4-2, in both periods.

Bexon Harrison tallied 5 goals in the match, Will Harrison and Emi Martinez- Galarza had 2 goals each, while Jake Canales and Roberto Perez-Puente scored 1 each.

Ethan Roecker came up with 8 saves.


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