American River Hands FCC First Home Loss Of The Season

In their first home game of the season, the Fresno City College water polo team faced American River College at the Fresno High School pool on Sept. 28. The match was won by American River with a score of 16-6, marking the first home loss of the season for FCC.

FCC was looking to get back on the winning track after a defeat against Grossmont College on Sept. 23. The Rams were looking to get their first conference win of the season in front of their home crowd.

The match begin with FCC’s 2 meter Alison Baker scoring the first goal of the game within one minute of playing time, but after that it became American River’s game. They scored the next five goals without a Ram response. The quarter ended with the score 5-1 in favor of American River.

The second quarter started with more of the same: American River scored the next two goals even though goalie Candice Islas had some great saves. FCC managed to get another goal from Baker in the same period, but American River also scored two more times.

Just before the end of the first half, the Rams got a goal from attacker Shelby Seybold to give the team some hope for the second half. By halftime, the score was 9-3 in favor of the visitor.

In the third quarter of the game, FCC tried to come back with some great tactics, but was counter attacked by American river who dominated the quarter with five goals. The only FCC goal came at the hands of Baker making it 14-4 in for the final quarter of the game.

The fourth quarter went more the way FCC wanted it to go, even though they still conceded a goal. Baker scored the last two goals of the game bringing her total to five goals in the game.

The final score was 16-6 in favor of American River, and handing the Rams their first home loss of the season.

“Our team is learning a lot; it’s early on in the season and all this is about learning and getting better,” said head coach Gianna Rossi. “Margaret Wash and Olivia McKray performed really well today, even though they didn’t score they played very well defensively.”

Rossi also said, “We are a young team and we have much to learn, but every game we’ve been getting better.”