Boys’ water polo is off to a strong start. After winning their first league match against Woodside Priory School, they followed up with a 13-10 victory against Menlo-Atherton High School on Monday, Sept. 22 — one of the top teams in the Peninsula Athletic League (PAL) Bay Division. Head coach Rory Hocker, who coached water polo at Menlo-Atherton last season, said he used his insight to give playstyle advice prior to the match.

“I actually coached at M-A last year, so I had a pretty good understanding of how those guys operated. I happened to watch them play about two weeks ago, so I knew what to expect in terms of the caliber of the players and what their approach was going to be,” Hocker said. “That allowed us to position my guys to effectively counter that and put them on the back heel early.”

Burlingame’s victory was largely the result of a dominant 9-1 lead in the first half. Although their momentum slowed in the second half, the Panthers held on for the remainder of the game.

“We did a lot of things right and a lot of things wrong, but it is a good starting point, because it’s still early in the league season. Good win to get. I don’t know the last time Burlingame beat M-A in water polo. So, massive win. But still, long way to go,” Hocker said.

Senior Matthew Derrossett was a key offensive player throughout the game with a total of six goals, including a penalty throw that gave the Panthers momentum early on. Still, Derrossett said he believes it was his strong defense that helped the team protect its lead.

“I contributed to the overall success of the team. I would say I had a good amount of goals, but I think my defense was also strong in taking away their center, which is one of their strongest players, and forcing them to have to use other types of offense,” Derrossett said.

Going into the match, the Panthers were also short-handed after injuries had accumulated in recent weeks. Despite this, Hocker said senior Micah Chu, junior Colby Dang, and freshman Henry Hopkins stepped up and performed well as substitutes for the injured players.

“Micah Chew, a senior, was massive yesterday. He had a huge game. I mean, everyone did their part. Colby Dang, junior goalie, but he ended up playing in the field due to player shortages. Henry Hopkins, the freshman. He had a lot of big minutes yesterday, played well, held his own,” Hocker said. “Just everyone did their job, and I’m really proud of everyone.”

Despite their dominant performance in the first half, Hopkins said the team needs to improve at maintaining the lead for all four quarters.

“In the second quarter, we probably should have played a little better. If we did, we probably could have gotten a farther lead, kind of pulled away a little bit,” Hopkins said. “Third and fourth [quarters] were okay, but they did start to come back a little towards the end, so we got to work on maintaining the gap in score.”

Ultimately, Derrossett said he was happy with the team’s performance and believes they set a strong standard for what to expect going forward.

“We set the precedent for what our league should expect from us, and I think our goal is to be undefeated,” Derossett said. “We can definitely do that.”