With the halftime score at 13-0, Dos Pueblos was able to clear the bench for the final two quarters in Wednesday’s 15-6 CIF Division I first-round win over visiting Notre Dame.
The result was never in question, but that won’t be the case when the Channel League co-champs pay a visit to El Toro on Friday, which knocked the Chargers (22-7) out of the playoffs in last year’s second round.
“It’s El Toro again. It’s pretty much the same situation and there’s a little déjà vu,” said Stanford-bound senior Conner Cleary.
He’s hoping the familiarity dissipates quickly, because after ending Dos Pueblos’ season last year, El Toro (also named the Chargers) defeated No. 6 DP 9-7 in a close match in the quarterfinals of the South Coast Tournament in September. Fourth-ranked El Toro went on to win the tournament.
“We lost by two to them in the tournament, but we were playing with shortened quarters and I feel like our team is pretty well-conditioned right now,” said coach Chris Parrish. “I had thought that we were going to end up with Corona del Mar but we got El Toro and that’s fine. We’re just gonna try to run what we run.”
Derek Shoemaker put away four goals and Chase Racich added three, but the DP starters (except for a brief stint in the second half by Christian Terpening) spent the second half of Wednesday’s match in their robes.
The Chargers put up a whopping eight goals in the first quarter, including a no-look backhand shot by Racich that made it 5-0 and a one-timer from Racich to Shoemaker with just one second remaining.
The second quarter began with a save by Moore, who threw a long pass down to the speedy Racich for an easy put-away. Jared Rassler buried a penalty shot about 30 seconds later for the Chargers’ 10th goal. DP slowed down a bit the rest of the quarter, scoring just two more goals over the final five minutes.
Notre Dame knew it was going to have a chance to get some goals back when the Chargers youngsters were put in, but DP’s JV pull-ups held their own for the most part. Sophomore goalie Phil Bates took over for starting goalie Brady Moore and tallied four saves and two blocks, including a couple of nice one-handed stops.
“I think we were really cruising today. We came out strong, which is what we’re always happy to see,” said Cleary.
DOS PUEBLOS 15, NOTRE DAME 6
Notre Dame…0 0 2 4 — 6
Dos Pueblos…8 5 1 1 — 15
Goals — ND: McIntyre 3, Pinney 2, Wilson 1. DP: Shoemaker 4, Racich 3, Rassler 2, Cappon 2, Silva 2 Baker 1, Terpening 1.
DP goalie saves — Moore 6, Bates 4.
