Bear Polo Goes 2-1 at Williston Despite Missing Two Captains

EASTHAMPTON, MA - Entering the weekend with a perfect 3-0 record, including a gripping win against Andover in the fourth quarter, Exeter’s boys’ varsity water polo team extended their promising run early in the season with a long tournament against Hopkins, Williston Northampton and Brunswick. Big Red won two games and dropped one tight game even without two of their best players, senior co-captains JB Baker and Joe Shepley, who were away at college visits.The tournament kicked off on Saturday with a game against Hopkins School, where Exeter quickly took care of business to take the sweeping win, 17-5. The second game was a showing against the home team Williston Northampton School, where Exeter again displayed their prowess as the defending champions of the league, taking the victory 12-4.Undoubtedly, the most challenging matchup for Bear Polo at the tournament was against Brunswick Academy, a strong, physical team consisting of well-trained individual players. Although they let up some easy goals at the beginning of the game, Exeter clawed their way back in and improved as time progressed, finishing with a close 5-7 loss.Despite the fact that Big Red suffered their first loss of the season, players on the team saw the three games as a good marker of their progress.“We were missing two of our starters, so we weren’t sure how the games were going to turn out, but winning two out of the three games was a great surprise,” lower David Shepley said. “We only lost by two goals, so I think that some of our other players really stepped up and performed at their best level, which helped us stay in the third game.”Upper Brooks Saltonstall agreed. “We had a lot of times where people who are lower down on the roster really stepped up and played a lot of really good polo,” he said.Although the team managed to draw good results from the tournament, the absence of Baker and Shepley still posed formidable obstacles for Bear Polo. Du Pont, the only captain left to lead the group, felt that the team faced the challenges well.“It took a while for us to get used to playing without JB and Joe, but it meant that younger players had to step up and play in a strong, physical style in a way that JB and Joe did. We saw a lot of that from Will Belmont, Brooks Saltonstall, Ernesto Brown, and Quinn Larkin. They all stepped up and performed well without JB and Joe there,” du Pont said. “Also, it meant that the goalies were going to get better shots against them, because we didn’t have JB and Joe there to block a lot of the shots, so Angus [Gorman] and Conrad [Diao] really stepped up and did a good job keeping us in every single game.”The team has gotten off to a great start to the season and many believe that they could potentially become NEPSAC champions for the second year in a row.“I think we’re doing really well, and I think we’re on par with how we were last year. I think we’re going to continue this trend. I feel that way right now, and I hope to feel that way for the rest of the season,” Saltonstall said.Shepley agreed. “Although we lost eight seniors that all started last year, the season has been going really well so far. The captains have been great, too; they’ve been really motivational and great role models to working hard and staying focused when it gets tough,” he said.Du Pont commented that, although the wins are valuable to the team, there were many things to be gained from the loss against Brunswick, as well.“I think the loss against Brunswick showed us that everybody needs to work on being aware offensively and defensively,” du Pont said. “We just realized that we needed to work on being more aware, playing more 6-on-6, and playing more game type situations so that people gain that sixth sense about where the ball is, where the opponent is, and where you need to be at all times in the pool.”