With Travis Frohlich and Travis Johnson, the San Marcos boys water polo team has a two-headed monster in the pool this season.
In Tuesday’s Channel League opener at the Royals’ pool, the Santa Barbara Dons effectively tamed the beast, nuetralizing the Royals 16-7.
Santa Barbara's Evan Schu defended the cage for the Dons in the fourth quarter of Tuesday's Channel League opener against San Marcos. This San Marcos shot ricocheted off the goal post.
“I felt like we played really good in the first quarter,” admitted Dons head coach Mark Walsh. “We didn’t make any mistakes and played pretty good defense.”
Santa Barbara, which moved up to No. 7 in D-I in the new CIF poll released on Monday, led 7-0 after the first quarter and 11-1 at halftime.
“You know, it’s great to come out and have a complete game as a team,” said Dons senior captain Ken Myers, who had a team-high three goals. “We did a lot of good things out there. We got a lot to work on, but good start.”
PHOTO GALLERY ** DONS TEAM PAGE ** ROYALS TEAM PAGE
Santa Barbara also got a pair of goals from Mark Davis, Alec Linz, Evan Robertson and Evan Schu.
Frohlich put the Royals on the scoreboard in the second period with his only goal of the game. Johnson found some room in the third quarter, scoring three times. Johnson added another in the fourth to tally a game-high four goals.
“I was really happy with Travis Johnson’s play today,” said Royals head coach Jeff Ashton. “He’s a huge leader on the team. In a timeout, in a huddle, he’s encouraging the guys to keep playing hard, to keep getting after it regardless of the score.”
San Marcos managed to outscore Santa Barbara 6-5 in the second half with the Dons’ reserves seeing a bulk of the action.
“Our game plan was to take away the Travises and they got five of their seven goals,” noted Myers. “So our defense was good in spurts, but then we’d have a mental break down and let one of those guys get open.”
The Dons, who started off the season with two losses, improve to 7-3 overall, 1-0 in league. San Marcos had a modest two-game win streak snapped and is now 8-7, 0-1. Santa Barbara heads to the Villa Park Tournament this weekend before clashing with No. 6 Ventura on Tuesday. The Royals travel to Buena on Thursday for more league play.
SANTA BARBARA 16, SAN MARCOS 7
Santa Barbara 7 4 4 1 — 16
San Marcos 0 1 4 2 — 7
SB Scores: Myers 3, Davis 2, Schu 2, Linz 2, Robertson 2, Foulk, Foley, Wolfe. SM Scores: T. Johnson 4, Frolich, Rivera, Lisea.
