Dos Pueblos converted on three early power plays, built a 7-2 lead after three quarters and then held off a late Carpinteria surge to take an 8-6 boys water polo victory in the season opener for both teams on Tuesday at the Elings Aquatic Center.
The Chargers swarmed Carpinteria and appeared headed for a blowout win. But goalie Sebastian Campuzano kept the Warriors in the game with a fabulous performance.
The junior stopped two penalty shots and made several point-blank saves. He finished with 12 saves.
“He made some really good plays and he made some really good saves,” said Dos Pueblos coach Chris Parrish of Campuzano. “I told the guys when we recapped the game that all the shots we took were actually high quality. They were blocked but the shots were at the right time and in the right position.
“That’s what we can expect at this time of the year. When we get through to the end of the year, we’d love to capitalize on those and execute, but that comes with knocking some of the rust off.”
Dos Pueblos has a talented group of freshmen, and two first-year players contributed to the scoring as Cole Racich and Lucas Neushul had goal one apiece.
Senior Jaden Moore finished with two goals, two field blocks and two drawn ejections. Senior Liam Sommer also score two goals for the Chargers.
“It was nice to integrate. I was able to pour in a four different freshmen during the game, so it was great to see them get the chance to work with some of the seniors and gain some experience.”
The Racich name is a familiar one at DP. Cole’s older brother Chase Racich was a water polo standout for the Chargers and went on to play at UCSB; sisters Caitlin, Taylor and Tristan starred in volleyball and played in college — Caitlin and Taylor at Pepperdine and Tristan at Azusa Pacific.
First-year Carpinteria coach Karl Fredrickson was pleased how his team came back strong in the fourth period. The Warriors scored six goals in the period, including two on penalty shots. from senior center Asher Smith. He led all scorers with four goals.
“Our offensive and defensive advantage is our conditioning. That’s what we’ve been working on over the summer and in preseason, and it showed in the fourth quarter,” said Fredrickson, who formerly served as a water polo assistant at Santa Ynez High. “I told our guys we need to take that level of energy in the fourth quarter with us in the first quarter in the next game.
“Especially in the early season, it’s about putting the pieces together, and there’s a lot of those. We have some great pieces and we got some good attitudes on the team, a lot of good building blocks for us, so I’m excited. I’m very pleased with how the boys played today.”
The coach said Campuzano was away on vacation for most of the summer and missed training sessions.
“We’ve been trying to get him up to speed, but he knows his home is in the cage and he protects his home very well. And we’re very grateful for that. He had a great game out there.”
Campuzano was at a disadvantage early in game as Dos Pueblos continually drew ejections. Andrew Fernandez-Kline and Sommer scored the first two goals on power plays in the first two minutes and Racich added another power play goal at the 2:52 mark.
“Carp is a lot better than they were last year. They got one really good center in Asher, and we knew we were going to have a better game than last year,” said Parrish. “I really wanted to focus on defense. When we play good defense, it kind of opens up the offense. That first period, we got the power plays, we were coming out with steam and made some good passes and earned some exclusions.”
Smith, who was guarded by Jaden Moore, with help from several other Chargers, made his presence known at the 2:06 mark with a wicked back-handed shot that zipped past DP goalie Reggie Robles. The Warriors got the ball to him again in the set position and he broke free from his defender and scored to make it 3-2.
Dos Pueblos shut out Smith and the Warriors in the second and third periods.
Moore made it 6-2 and DP scored the seventh goal after Campuzano made two incredible point-blank blocks on a bang-bang sequence in front of the cage.
The Chargers went up 8-2 early in the fourth period before Carpinteria caught fire. The Warriors got single goals from Micah Smith and Jake Ehlers and two from Asher Smith on penalty shots.
In the last two minutes, Robles came up big for DP, and the Warriors misfired on a couple of shots.
Dos Pueblos heads to the Arroyo Grande Tournament this weekend, while Carpinteria plays in the Thousand Oaks Tournament.