San Marcos girls lacrosse dominated the opening quarter and never looked back en route to a 15-7 win over crosstown rival Dos Pueblos on Tuesday at Scott O’Leary Stadium in Goleta.
The Royals (10-3, 4-0 Channel League) and Chargers (6-7, 4-1 CL) came into the game as the last teams remaining undefeated in league play, and San Marcos left in first place with a ½-game lead.
“I think [the win] took a little bit of a load off because there’s always that self-doubt, although I think it was just me,” San Marcos head coach Paul Ramsey said. “The girls were pumped and came out in the first quarter like they owned the field. I feel like that first quarter play really boosted us the rest of the way.”
Dos Pueblos honored its senior class of Linnea Clapinski, Stella Lawler, Sophia Campuzano, Hannah Dawes, Sonya Reid and Seri Gaynes in a pregame ceremony.
“I really feel that the group of seniors we have, the six girls that we celebrated tonight, have been instrumental in helping us have good seasons, leading us some practice and just being leaders on the field,” Dos Pueblos head coach Dan Feldhaus said.
“I’m very thankful for what they bring to us, and they’re going to be very much missed.”
After an empty first possession for the Chargers, San Marcos’ Josephine Grossman received a pass at midfield and charged straight through the DP defense on her way to the goal and the 1-0 lead 30 seconds into the game.
Less than a minute later, Grossman drew a foul and found Rylie Cook on the ensuing play for a goal to double the lead. The Royals continued their blazing start just 14 seconds later this time, as Taylee Jones knifed through the defense and scored for a 3-0 lead at the 10:24 mark.
The Chargers got on the scoreboard with 9:01 on the clock when Campuzano made a nice feed to Clapinski for the score. However, San Marcos answered less than a minute later as Lyle Dessouky scored an unassisted goal to make it 4-1.
While the Royals’ defense went back to its dominating ways, the SM offense rattled off four more goals as Grossman, Jones, Cook and Dessouky all scored their second goals of the day to take an 8-1 lead into the second.
“I think [the fast start] is a testament to how much they work on their stick skills and the strength program we had in the fall,” Ramsey said. “They are ready to go in the first quarter, they don’t have any reservations and it’s just time to go for it.”
San Marcos carried that momentum into the second as Grossman scored in the opening minute, but DP responded with back-to-back goals from Clapinski and Shelby Moccardini to bring the score to 9-3 with nine minutes left in the half.
However, once again the Royals locked in down the stretch, holding DP off the scoreboard and adding three more goals courtesy of Grossman, Cook and Angelina Cruz to extend the lead to 12-3 at halftime.
The third was a bit more uneventful, as there were just two goals scored, both by the Royals, and the game featured a running clock for the majority of the quarter.
Cook scored her fourth goal of the game off a rebound, while Victoria Aldana got in the scoring column with a late goal to make it 14-3 with one quarter to play.
Despite the lopsided score, Lawler continued to grit it out for the Chargers in the cage and ended the night with 13 total saves.
“Stella blocked a lot of goals, and many of the goals that were allowed were one-on-ones; those are almost impossible to stop,” Feldhaus said. “She really stepped up, and I was so impressed with how many of those shots she blocked.
“The whole second half, I thought we just made some changes and tried to slow them down, and I think we were a little bit effective in slowing their team down.”
The Chargers put together a valiant effort in the fourth, with Calpinski scoring three straight goals to begin the quarter and cut the deficit to 14-6. Clapinski ended the night with a game-high five goals.
“[Clapinksi] has been doing it all season long. She carries this team on attack, and she wins a lot of the draws,” Feldhaus said.
San Marcos broke the scoring run when Mia Richmond found the back of the net, but DP rounded out the scoring when Campuzano scored a senior night goal to bring the game to its final score of 15-7.
While Grossman and Cook paced San Marcos with four goals apiece, seven different Royals scored and every player took the field in the win.
“It’s huge for our program, and it’s huge for the younger players to be able to go in not just at the end when we could have been up by a lot, but to put them in early, and I think everybody was in in the first quarter,” Ramsey said.
“It’s huge for our program to have the younger players still getting their experience to get in that type of situation against the first-place team in the league.”
San Marcos will now host Thacher on Thursday at 4:30 p.m., while Dos Pueblos will head across town to take on Santa Barbara High on Thursday at 6 p.m.