The THS boy’s water polo team took a hard loss to Hillsboro on Wednesday night. With the final score being 15-6, the boys never backed down.

From the start, Hillsboro took the lead by scoring the first goal. Not long after, however, our Tigers took charge and scored. The clever plays made were just too hard to keep up with, though.

Tigard’s freshman goalkeeper, Jonathan Irving, managed to block some extremely challenging shots in the first half, but Hillsboro kept coming back with more every time. After the game he commented, “I come to play, and the fun comes after you play well.”

Halfway through the game, with Hillsboro still leading, THS boys kept up their spirits, chanting “Viva La Tigre” and never backing down from the game. As usual, the Tigard crowd that came to support the team never let the boys forget just how great they were doing.

“The biggest thing is that they’re a young team,” says the water polo coach, John Ruzicka. “But the more they play, the better they get.” Our young Tigard team had a tough game, but the coach says that on the field, many of the players had a good game. “For the most part, they played pretty well.”

Elliot Brennan (senior, team captain, and “star” player) agreed with his coach, remarking after the game, “We’re all just young, but it wasn’t nearly as terrible as I would have thought.”

Even after Tigard’s unfortunate loss, no one could stop the smiles when the spectators rushed the pool. The boys will definitely be ready to  take the plunge into victory on Monday, Oct. 29 at 8 p.m. against the Lakeridge Pacers at their pool.