Ryann Neushul let it be known right away she wasn’t going to allow the tenacious pressing defense of Orange Lutheran stop her and the Dos Pueblos girls water polo team from advancing to the semifinals of the elite eight CIF-Southern Section Division 1 playoffs.
Neushul scored three of her game-high seven goals in the first period to provide the Chargers a big boost in 12-7 victory on Thursday at the Elings Aquatic Center.
The victory sends top-seeded DP (28-1) to the Woollett Aquatic Center on Wednesday for a semifinal match against Foothill, a 10-9 winner over Corona del Mar in the eight-team tournament.
The other semifinal pits San Marcos against Mater Dei. San Marcos stunned second-seeded and defending champion Laguna Beach, 8-7, in overtime at Newport Harbor. Mater Dei defeated Los Alamitos.
Neushul credited DP’s defensive play for setting the table for the goal scoring.
“I think our defense is what got us those goals, those quick counter goals,” she said. “Coming out with good D just sets the tone for us, always.”
Neushul got the Chargers going with a pair of goals off Olivia Kistler assists. She took a pass from Kistler on a counterattack, went one-on-one with the goalie and finished with one of her sweet lob shots over the helpless Alyssa Barnuevo. She buried her second goal off a cross-pool pass from the eagle-eyed Kistler, who recorded five assists in the game.
“She plays fast and she delivers the ball really well, and lets us score easy goals. And she did that again tonight,” DP coach Connor Levoff said of the Hawaii-bound Kistler.
Neushul showed her passing ability, finding Chloe Pena for a goal and a 3-0 lead.
Ryann Neushul scores one of her seven goals for Dos Pueblos in a 12-7 Division 1 playoff win over Orange Lutheran pic.twitter.com/9D3pifneMd
— NoozhawkSports (@NoozhawkSports) February 16, 2018
The Stanford-bound senior capped her red-hot first period with a splendid goal. She rose out of the water to catch Kistler’s pass and whipped a side-armed shot into the back of the net.
“We’ve been doing that all year and it sort of put us in our comfort zone a little bit after the first,” DP coach Connor Levoff said of jumping out to the early lead.
Brooke Hourigan got Orange Lutheran on the board early in the second quarter, and the Lancers threatened to score again on a counterattack. But DP sophomore goalie Anna Cable raced out of the cage and beat Hourigan to the ball to deny the scoring chance.
Hourigan led the Lancers (13-10) with five goals.
The Chargers’ offense went into a lull against Orange Lutheran’s high pressure defense before Neushul and Abbi Hill combined for a pretty goal with 1:16 left in the period. Neushul took a pass from Kayla Peacock and fed across to Hill for the finish.
“Attacking against a press is something we do constantly in training,” Levoff explained. “It’s just like any kind of water polo: it’s about organization, spacing and making sure we’re creating the opportunities that we want. Not letting the press disrupt what we’re doing.
“We ran into a funk and turned the ball over a couple of times in the second quarter and gave them a little momentum,” he continued. “We did a better job after that. We started picking our spots and making sure we were not leading to easy looks and goals for them.”
Neushul burned the Orange Lutheran defense again, scoring off a long pass from Cable for a 6-1 lead.
The Lancers scored on the restart just before the halftime buzzer to make it a 6-2 game.
Pena won a jump ball after a tie-up on the sprint to start the third period and DP scored right away on another goal by Neushul.
Hourigan converted a penalty shot for Orange Lutheran before the Chargers buried two more goals on power plays to go up 9-3. Sabina Shackelford scored at the near post off a Pena assist and Neushul capitalized on the 6-on-5 situation.
DP turns tough defense into a counterattack goal pic.twitter.com/Vujreyp5ki
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Hill showed her stuff to make it a 10-4 game, squeezing between two defenders to take a pass from Neushul and puttting her shot away.
Peacock threw a perfect lead pass to Neushul for DP’s 11th goal
Hill took a feed from Kistler for the 12th goal with 3:04 to play.
Now comes the semifinals. The Chargers were there last year and lost to Laguna Beach.
“That experience helps a ton, the poise and the maturity of our upperclassmen being back where they have been helps a lot,” Levoff said. “I think we’ll be ready and have a good game plan to go.”
Said Neushul of the team going back to the semifinals: “I think we have great leadership and great team play, and we’re going to bring it. We’ve played every team in Division 1 and we’re prepared now more than ever.”
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
Chargers score on the power play against Orange Lutheran pic.twitter.com/AvJsWCBgBg
— NoozhawkSports (@NoozhawkSports) February 16, 2018