It’s a rare occurrence when the Dos Pueblos girls water polo team allows six goals in the first period of game.
But there it was on the scoreboard at the Elings Aquatic Center after the first seven minutes of Thursday’s CIF-SS Division 1 quarterfinal against Agoura.
The visitors (both teams are nicknamed Chargers) scored on three penalty shots and a power play en route to a 6-2 advantage and maintained a four-goal lead (9-5) at halftime.
Dos Pueblos regained its form in the second half, holding Agoura to one goal while fighting back to give it a chance to send the game into overtime.
The hosts came a fingernail short of tying the score.
Deveraux Wigo’s long-range shot under pressure with four seconds left tipped off the fingertips of an Agoura defender and clipped the underside of the cross bar before it was batted away by goalie Emma Lee Webber, leaving DP on the short end of a 10-9 decision.
“We just had an abysmal first half, we just really blew it,” said DP coach Chris Parish, whose team finishes the season at 19-8. “Our defense wasn’t working, there was lack of communication in the pool. I think it was essentially my fault trying to have them run a different defense than what we’ve been doing all season. I think I sent them into the game unprepared for that. We dug ourselves a big hole, tried to fight back.”
Agoura (23-7) beat DP on drives to the goal and drew three calls for penalty shots. Peyton Rosenthal converted all three to help Agoura take a 6-2 lead. Rosenthal put away a fourth 5-meter free shot to make it an 8-2 game at 5:08 of the second quarter.
Everything seemed to be going Agoura’s way. Defending on a power play, DP blocked two shots but Agoura maintained possession and Anna Ciccarello scored for a 9-3 lead.
Dos Pueblos got two back before halftime as Wigo bounced one past the Agoura goalie Webber and Keira McAvoy scored on a power play.
Parish made a switch at goalie in the second half, bringing in regular starter Reagan Mack, who’s been recovering from a right shoulder injury.
“Melaya Coleman, a field player, stepped up big time when Reagan went down,” said Parish.
Mack made an immediate impact, throwing a long pass to Wigo that resulted in a one-on-one situation that Wigo put away to make it 9-6 at the 6:09 mark of the third period. Another great outlet pass led to a two-on-one counterattack, with Lucy Watson feeding Wigo for the goal. Wigo led DP with five goals.
“She has a hurt shoulder and I was really hesitant to have her in the game,” said Parish of Mack.
Mack made a big save on a point-blank shot at the near post on a power play in the third period, but Agoura got one over her on a terrific lob by Emerson Maxwell for a 10-7 lead.
“We came out strong in the beginning, kind of set tone. But I knew they were going to come back,” said Agoura coach Jason Rosenthal. “They got a ton of talent on the team and (Chris Parish) had some kids he was able to rest for awhile. When they came back in that second half they were strong and ready to go.
“We just held on. We did a good job of holding on at the end there.”
Wigo made it a two-goal game as she got inside the Agoura defense and scored. Agoura got a huge break when Talia Marshall’s open shot banged off the cross bar.
McAvoy tallied her second goal of the game to make it 10-9 at the 4:09 mark of the fourth quarter.
The DP defense held Agoura without a shot on its next possession, but DP gave it right back on an offensive foul call.
Agoura created a great opportunity to go ahead by two goals with 2:40 left in regulation, but Mack came up with a massive save. She dived to her left and reached high with the left hand to block the shot from going into the upper corner of the cage.
DP’s Watson drew an exclusion and McAvoy got a good look on the power play but the ball hit the near post with 2:10 to go.
In the final minute, Agoura’s defense held DP without a shot and kept the ball until calling a timeout with one second left on the shot clock and 20 seconds on the game clock.
Agoura threw the ball into the DP end and Parish called time out to draw up a play for a game-tying shot. The play fell apart as the ball was mishandled on a couple of passes.
“We fumbled the ball three times on the play,” said Parish. “The idea was to get the shot off with plenty of time to get a rebound. The shot goes off when time is expiring so there’s no chance for a rebound.”