Santa Barbara High boys water polo exploded in the first quarter and never looked back en route to a 16-9 win over Corona High in the opener of the CIF-SS Div. 3 playoffs on Tuesday at Santa Barbara High.
The Dons piled on seven goals and played stifling defense in the opening quarter to race out to a commanding lead, and from there they fought off any Panther hope at a comeback to advance to Round 2 of the playoffs.
“For us it’s the second year of a long journey, two years ago we graduated a lot of seniors… We didn’t have a lot of success last year and the main goal was to build towards this year,” Santa Barbara High coach Mark Walsh said. “For us to be at home, be in a CIF game and to still be playing truly feels like a gift.
“I’m really proud of all the work they’ve put in, not just this year but last year to get us to this point. They’ve grown closer as a group, it’s been really fun to see them do this together.”
With the win, the Dons will now face off against the winner of Temple City and Troy on the road on Thursday at 5 p.m.
Oliver Kelly got the scoring started for Santa Barbara High with an outside goal off an assist by Shane Davis to go up 1-0, but Corona quickly responded with a goal of its own.
However, the rest of the first quarter was all Dons, as they rattled off six straight unanswered scores to balloon their lead out to 7-1 heading into the second.
Kelly, Davis and Paolo Borgioli each scored two goals while Lorenzo Russell found the back of the cage once in the high-powered opening quarter. Five of the scores came off assists.
“We definitely wanted to start it out quick, we tend to struggle at the start of games,” Walsh said. “We knew they just had a long trip up here, so what we didn’t want to do is have a slow start and let them hang in the game and let them feel good.
“We’ve been working on trying to move the ball a little bit better and it seems to be helping us a little bit.”
Corona struck first in the second quarter to cut into the deficit, but Will Stearns-Corbin and Russell responded with goals of their own to bring the Santa Barbara High lead to 9-2.
After another Panther goal, the Dons once again answered with two goals of their own courtesy of Jack Drown on the outside and a penalty shot by Kelly.
Corona added one more goal in the final minute of the half to give Santa Barbara High an 11-4 advantage at halftime.
The Dons’ defense was dominant throughout the second half, anchored by a stellar seven-steal performance by Davis to go along with his two goals and two assists.
“Shane is a defensive savant, he’s a beautiful mind that sees everything and where it’s going to go,” Walsh said. “At one point he covered like eight yards in two strokes and stole a ball and I said ‘Oh man there are not many guys that can do that.’”
Kelly came out of the break firing for the Dons, scoring back-to-back goals off assists by Russell and Davis to extend the lead to 13-4. Kelly led the team in scoring with five goals.
Corona scored a pair of goals of its own before Russell took over for Santa Barbara High, adding two more goals to his game total of four to give the Dons a 15-6 advantage with one quarter to play.
The Panthers turned in their best offensive performance in the fourth quarter, scoring three unanswered goals. However, Santa Barbara High’s Sam Walker scored the final goal of the day and the defense held on to secure the 16-9 victory.
It was an all-around effort for the Dons, as seven different players got into the scoring column and nine players tallied assists, including three from Drown.
Santa Barbara High goalie Nikita Kolosov even recorded an assist to go along with eight saves in the cage.