San Marcos girls water polo won the opening sprint and Charlotte Raisin scored from the outside in the first 20 seconds of play on Thursday, setting the tone for what proved to be a dominant performance against rival Dos Pueblos.
The Royals had complete control of both ends of the pool on their way to an 18-3 rout of the Chargers on Senior Day at the San Marcos pool deck.
With the win, San Marcos completed an undefeated Channel League regular season campaign and clinched at least a share of the league title. If the Royals win the league tournament at the end of the month, they will be the outright champions.
“Our girls took this really seriously because [DP] is playing really good water polo and our girls were just excited about playing,” San Marcos head coach Chuckie Roth said. “Anytime to play in town is a really special opportunity. A lot of teams got a ton of home games that are close. We don’t get a ton of those in these rivalry games in Santa Barbara tend to bring out the majority of the crowd.
“For them, that’s a special opportunity, just to play in front of those childhood friends… I was happy to have that experience today.”
After Raisin’s game-opening score, the 1-0 lead held for a few minutes thanks to a pair of strong saves by Dos Pueblos’ Reagan Mack.
However, Raisin doubled the lead to 2-0 at the 4:33 mark on an impressive backhanded shot off an assist by goalie Bethany King.
That opened up the floodgates, as Sophie Yonker followed with a goal of her own before Raisin completed the first-quarter hat trick to make it 4-0 with two minutes left in the quarter.
The senior duo of Raisin and Yonker led the offense in the rivalry win, as Raisin scored six goals and dished out four assists while Yonker ended the day with four goals.
“Charlotte has more international experience than any other athlete that has gone through my program,” Roth said. “People see that, but people don’t see what it does to her when she gets back. They don’t see how hard it is on her academics and how draining it is.
“You go and you play one system, and then you come back here. I’ve seen it, and it’s not easy. Kudos to her, it’s hard to put a young kid in that situation.”
“[Yonker] has improved so much and she’s such a great kid. She’s so positive, so kind, and she’s a great team player… It was fun to be able to have them do what they do in front of the people they want to do in front of.”
San Marcos rounded out a dominant first quarter with a score by McKenna Stuart and Raisin’s fourth goal of the quarter to take a 6-0 lead into the second.
The second quarter was more of the same, as the Royals’ defense continued to dominate and completed the first half shutout. Meanwhile, Raisin and Yonker each scored twice more in the quarter, while Jade Pattison and Shea Estabrook got in on the scoring to make it 12-0 at halftime.
“We’ve been doing a better job defensively, which has been fun,” Roth said. “We’ve changed some stuff up and simplified some things for some people. That made it easier for us to act as a team, to defend as a team.
“So that part’s been great, and it’s fun for me to see them operating as a unit, regardless of me. I don’t have much to do with that.”
San Marcos kept it rolling in the third quarter with four unanswered goals courtesy of Yonker, Pattison, Estabrook and Bethany King to balloon the lead to 16-0.
Dos Pueblos got on the board with 52 seconds left in the third on a penalty goal from Dev Wigo, but the Royals immediately responded as Lily Bordofsky scored to make it 17-1 with one quarter to play.
“Quite frankly, San Marcos is more talented than anyone out there,” Dos Pueblos head coach Chris Parrish said. “I think they showcase it here in their little pool, and it’s really hard to play in this little small space, because there’s just no spacing.
“Their girls are big, strong and fast, and so when you get caught up in a game like this, they’re gonna dominate you.”
The Royals rounded out their scoring early in the fourth with a goal by King, while the Chargers got goals from Wigo and Lucy Watson to bring the game to its final score of 18-3.
“You never know how a game’s going to go, you don’t know how it’s going to be. There are a lot of factors involved,” Roth said. “We definitely controlled the tempo of the game, and that was very clear at the very beginning of the game.”
San Marcos’ lopsided win followed a Senior Day celebration honoring the class of Raisin, Yonker, King, Leon McKenzie, Anna Jacobsen, Kate Crowder and Lily Gallardo.
“This group’s been through a lot, and I’m really proud of their improvement,” Roth said of his seniors. “We’ve had some ups and downs as a program, but I think it’s more about the present, and I’m really proud of the way that they’re leading this year.
“In all my years of coaching, [not having a true goalie] is the greatest challenge I’ve ever faced. To see them deal with it, support each other and then obviously have people step up and play goalie, that’s pretty special to me to see that self-sacrifice to play for each other.”