Dos Pueblos boys water polo pulled away in the fourth quarter to earn a hard-fought 10-7 rivalry win over Santa Barbara High on Tuesday afternoon.
Tuesday’s game marked the second of a strong Channel League schedule for both teams, as the Chargers evened their league mark to 1-1 while the Dons dropped to 1-1.
“I try not to put any pressure on the guys coming into the game… but quite frankly in our league now this game is pretty crucial,” Dos Pueblos coach Chris Parrish said. “I expect to run into Santa Barbara in our league tournament.
“With our loss to Ventura, we knew we needed to win one because we’re going to have a heck of a time with Buena and San Marcos is the class of the group right now… We probably needed this victory to keep ourselves in the running, at least for a playoff spot.”
The Dons opened the scoring in the first quarter after Oliver Kelly deposited a goal from the outside to go up 1-0.
After a few failed possessions, the Chargers drew a penalty inside and Grant Nelson buried the penalty shot to even the score up 1-1 with 4:53 left in the first.
Both defenses then applied plenty of pressure on the opposing offenses, setting the tone for what proved to be a physical game throughout.
Dos Pueblos broke the tie late in the first when Ben Fuhrer found the back corner of the cage from the outside, putting the Chargers up 2-1 heading into the second quarter.
Kelly brought the two teams even again at 2-2 with his second goal of the day, as he fired from the outside and the ball bounced off the Dos Pueblos goalkeeper for the score.
“It’s great to have Oliver back, he was in Sweden last year,” Santa Barbara High coach Mark Walsh said. “He’s a really good shooter and he’s taken a big leadership role this year.
“I’m glad he got a couple of goals in, it always feels good when you put all the work in and see some goals.”
That score kickstarted the Dons’ offense, as Lorenzo Russell found the back of the cage on an impressive spin shot in the middle and Will Stearns-Corbin followed that up with a goal at the shot clock buzzer to go up 4-2 with 4:08 left in the first half.
However, the Chargers swung back and took advantage of the game’s physicality, drawing penalties on back-to-back possessions and scoring on both penalty shots by Nelson and Eli Carnaghe to tie the game at 4-4.
“Fortunately we had a weekend here where we played some really physical games against physical teams so they’re pretty well adjusted to a physical game,” Parrish said. “Fortunately in this one, it was Santa Barbara who found themselves in foul trouble… we got pretty fortunate on a lot of really good passes in the center and in some isolations.
“The physicality worked a little bit to our advantage I think.”
In the final minute of the second quarter, Dos Pueblos snagged the lead back as Lucas Neushul gained possession of a loose ball and took advantage of the empty cage for a goal and a 5-4 advantage.
An action-packed third quarter began with Kelly’s third goal of the day from the outside to tie the game up once again at 5-5.
As they did in the second, the Chargers answered right back with an inside goal from Fuhrer and a breakaway score by Neushul to give Dos Pueblos the lead back at 7-5 with 3:26 left in the third.
“We knew they swam really well, they’re faster than us by a lot,” Walsh said. “They drive really well and they move well, they have a bunch of guys who can move and post up and I wouldn’t say that is one of our strengths.
“They got inside water and had really good positioning on us a lot of times.”
On the next Santa Barbara High possession, Russell received a pass inside and slotted the ball past the Dos Pueblos goalkeeper with the defense in his face to cut the deficit to one.
In the last two minutes of the third, the two sides exchanged scores as Nelson scored off an assist from Neushul for Dos Pueblos while Shane Davis got in on the scoring to bring the score to 8-7 heading into the fourth.
While it seemed like this game was going to go down to the wire, the Chargers took control in the fourth quarter on the defensive end of the pool.
Dos Pueblos shut out the Santa Barbara High offense and tacked on two more goals by Nelson and Neushul to cap off the 10-7 win.
“Being down one going into the fourth was not a terrible sign, we just needed a couple of goals to get going and we weren’t able to,” Walsh said. “Our offense isn’t really in sync, so we’re really struggling with what to do in different situations.
The Dos Pueblos sophomore duo of Nelson and Neushul have been a dominant offensive force all season, and that was no different on Tuesday as Nelson scored four goals and Neushul scored three times.
“The two sophomores have been sharing the load, they’re 80% of the offense right now in any given game,” Parrish said. “It’s nice to have two, if you have a singular player that’s scoring most of your goals it’s pretty easy to game plan against.
“Grant makes plays on his own and Lucas finds himself in the right spot at the right time, and you can’t really gameplan for a player like that.”
Both teams are back in action on Friday as the Chargers will now host Pacifica and the Dons will welcome Rio Mesa.