Bear Polo Crushes Big Blue in Decisive Victory

EXETER - With a home crowd of excited students, faculty members, and parents cheering them on, Bear Polo scored their second victory against archrivals Phillips Academy in a 10-3 landslide win.

 Unlike earlier in the season when they let up two early goals in the beginning of the game, Big Red got off to a much better start this time around, scoring the first goal of the game and seizing the momentum from there on.“In our last game with Andover, it was a really close neck-and-neck game all the way through, so it was definitely a pleasant surprise to get up so early in the game,” upper Brooks Saltonstall said. “We came out and dominated right from the start of the game.”With a strong, shutdown defense that proved to be effective against Andover, Exeter built more scoring opportunities based off of defensive stands. Until the early stages of the fourth quarter, Big Blue failed to even get on the scoreboard, with Exeter leading 9-0 at one point.Many players credited the success of the game to their defensive tactics. “The biggest difference between this game and the last game was defense. In fact, we played the best defense we played all season long,” senior co-captain Nick du Pont said. “We shut down their top players, we shut down two-meters and the goalies made saves and were smart with the ball.”Lower Ernesto Brown agreed. “Overall, the motto of our team is hard defense, and offense comes second. Today, we capitalized on defense hugely. We shut them out in the first three quarters, and we stayed true to our defensive tactics.”A new type of one-on-one strategy also helped Exeter shut down one of the league’s best players: senior Travis Bouscaren, a co-captain of Andover’s team. Whereas before, Bouscaren led Andover in both the offensive and defensive ends with his combined speed and agility, senior co-captain JB Baker was able to remain focused on defending him at all times, which limited Bouscaren’s role in the game to scoring only one goal.The first-round matchup at Interschols on November 9 will feature third seed Exeter against second seed Deerfield, who eked out a double-overtime, 9-8, win against Big Red a few weeks ago. Despite this, Exeter is hopeful in retaining their NEPSAC Championship title from last year with more intense training in the coming days.“I’d say the main things we have to improve on are counterattacks and playing offense against a strong press because Deerfield has a really strong defense. Andover’s was not as strong, so that’s definitely an aspect we can work on going towards Interschols,” senior Quinn Larkin said. “Other than that, on the offensive end, we were confident in our skills but there’s always room to improve in everything.”Brown agreed. “There are aspects of every part of our game we need to improve. For defense, we could crash faster. For offense, we could pass smoother. Shots could be better. We could improve everything across the board, because you’re never perfect.”Especially with the pressure of Interschols, du Pont stressed the importance of being able to adapt to playing against different teams. “Different teams have different strongest players, different offensive tendencies and different defensive tendencies, so we really need to be ready for each team we’re playing at Interschols,” he said.