Buhach Colony played spoiler on Thursday afternoon when they came in to town to take on this year’s Pitman High boys’ water polo team.

Unfortunately for the Pitman Pride, a last minute surge in the final seconds was not possible after a steady start in the game and they fell after a fourth quarter falter by one goal, 11-12.

“Buhach is a solid team, they were good. Just some calls did not go our way, but there is little we could do there. But it was a good game overall,” said Pitman senior Josh Buck, who finished with a team-high 5 goals.

“Definitely a battle the whole way through. There was some lead changes, but we never quite got it at the end,” said Pitman assistant head coach Toby Stonelake. “We played well as a team since we haven’t really been playing as well lately, so this was a game where we can walk away proud with how we played.”

After a 0-3 start in league, and a recent loss to Merced on Tuesday, it seemed like Pitman had depleted their reserves, but they did not let down on Thursday and instead came out with a fury.

The team started off matching Buhach in intensity and went up 2-1 early on in the contest after a Dom Walls and Buck goal.

Each side played a game of hot potato as each team went back and forth with goal scoring, tying the game on numerous occasions.

After the first quarter had concluded, the game was tied at 4-4.

The game remained equal for a majority of the second until Buhach notched a late goal in the closing seconds, taking an 8-7 lead into the half.

Pitman went on to even the score at 10 apiece by the end of the third after outscoring Buhach 3-1 in the quarter with the help of goals from Buck, Joshua Hamby and Tanner Day.

“Both teams really went out there hard and we were fighting for sure but it came down to some small things. But other than that it was a good game,” said Day. “We need to work some offense but we saw that and we will work on developing that cohesion.”

After Buhach scored two goals to go up in the opening minutes of the fourth, Pitman responded by tacking on their late score with 45 seconds left. But by the time their next attempt came it was called a penalty against Pitman as Buck nearly nudged the tying goal and the Pride lost it 11-12.

 “We have Turlock in our next game and we are excited since we know they played Buhach closely as well,” said Stonelake. “This is a good game to have before we play in that game.”

The next game for Pitman will be a home match against crosstown rivals, Turlock at 3 p.m. Tuesday.