Dos Pueblos girls water polo outlasted Marlborough in a back-and-forth CIF-SS Div. 1 playoff opener for a 12-11 victory on Friday night at Elings Aquatic Center in Goleta.
The two teams exchanged blows throughout the night, but the No. 4-seeded Chargers defended their home pool deck and kept their season alive with the win.
“I’m really confident in the girls in tight games. I like the way they play,” Dos Pueblos head coach Chris Parrish said. “They’re resilient. This is our 29th game of the season and they fight to the very end every single time.
“Even though they’re not seniors, there’s a lot of leadership on the team. I think they’re all pretty calm, and it’s a kind of reassurance for the younger players that are in here.”
The Chargers will remain at home for their second round matchup as they play host to Agoura High on Thursday, Feb. 12, at 5 p.m. In their one matchup this season, Dos Pueblos earned a 13-6 win.
The Mustangs struck immediately, winning the opening sprint and scoring within 20 seconds to take a quick 1-0 lead. That score held for the majority of the quarter until Lucy Watson scored off an assist from Talia Marshall with 2:02 on the clock.
Watson’s goal opened the floodgates for the Chargers, as she scored twice more for the first-quarter hat trick and Wynonna Shea found the back of the net to take a 4-1 lead and all the momentum into the second.
“Lucy Watson started the game on fire,” Parrish said.
Marlborough kicked off the second quarter scoring as well to cut into that lead, but Devereaux Wigo answered with an inside goal to make it 5-2 with 5:24 left in the half.
However, the Charger offense then went cold for the rest of the half. Meanwhile, the Mustangs rattled off three unanswered goals to tie the game at 5-5 at halftime. Marlborough carried its momentum over to the second half with the first goal to take its first lead of the night at 6-5.
The momentum swings continued, however, as Dos Pueblos responded with three straight goals courtesy of Kiera McAvoy, Wigo and Marshall to retake the lead at 8-6 with 4:05 on the clock.
“It’s a very opportunistic offense, a lot of what we get is generated out of our transition, whether it’s an exclusion in transition, or a one-on-nobody, some kind of good look out of the back,” Parrish said.
“There’s a little bit of speed on our team, where it’s maybe not the primary person down the pool, but the second person is the recipient of that stuff. Devereaux (Wigo) and Lucy (Watson) were able to find those gaps and do a good job.”
The Mustangs then got one of those goals back, but Wigo immediately answered with an outside shot for her third goal of the game.
The 9-7 Dos Pueblos lead held into the fourth quarter thanks in part to clutch saves from goalie Malaya Coleman, who filled in for injured starter Reagan Mack.
Coleman totaled seven saves for the Chargers and made several strong passes while taking over for Mack, who Parrish “hopes” will return for the second round of playoffs.
“She’s such a team player, she stepped up right away,” Parrish said of Coleman. “She’s a great passer too, so even if she’s not going to get all the blocks in the world, at least she can facilitate in transition and help keep the ball safe for us as we’re getting into the half-court.”
The fourth quarter was an entertaining back-and-forth affair with both teams combining for seven goals, but the Chargers’ lead was never less than two until the final seconds.
The two sides exchanged scores back and forth in a three-minute stretch, with Dos Pueblos’ goals coming from Charlotte Neushul, McAvoy and Wigo.
Marlborough brought the final score to 12-11 with a goal as the buzzer sounded, advancing the Chargers to a second-round playoff matchup.
Wigo ended the night with a team-high four goals for the Chargers to go along with her two assists. Meanwhile, Watson scored three times and Marshall dished out five assists in the victory.