Dos Pueblos senior Derek Shoemaker scored three goals in Wednesday's CIF opener
Christian Terpening made a surprise return to Dos Pueblos’ boys water polo team on Wednesday, just in time to be a part of the Chargers’ 18-5 CIF-opening victory over San Clemente.
Terpening, a starting senior who was thought to be lost for the season because of a ruptured eardrum, got the doctors’ clearance to resume playing just in time for Dos Pueblos’ playoff run.
Terpening was able to contribute a goal and two steals in limited action.
“He got in about 10 good game minutes today,” said Chargers head coach Chris Parrish, whose team moves on to face No. 4 Newport Harbor on Friday in the Division I quarterfinals.
Terpening’s return will surely help the Chargers’ CIF title hopes, but it was a heavy dose of Chase Racich, Derek Shoemaker and Kevin Cappon which got the Chargers past San Clemente.
Racich and Cappon registered a game-high five goals each and Shoemaker filled the stat sheet with three goals, five assists and three steals. Goalkeeper Brady Moore posted eight saves, two blocks, a steal and two assists.
Despite the wide final margin of victory, Tuesday’s match was actually deadlocked at 2-2 in the first quarter. After a DP timeout, however, the Chargers locked in and reeled off eight straight goals while not allowing San Clemente to score again during the first half.
“I called the timeout not because I was really worried about the game; it was more that I could see my guys not doing what they were supposed to be doing,” explained Chargers head coach Chris Parrish. “There were simple assignments that I felt they just needed to be reminded about.”
DP scored several times on easy transition goals and also benefited from four penalty shots, three of which were converted by Cappon.
“(Kevin) is just comfortable with it,” Parrish said about Cappon’s role as the team’s primary penalty-shot taker.”He’s done it the whole season and we don’t want to rock anything.”
San Clemente’s season ends with a 13-13 season and Tritons head coach Marc Parker thinks the future is bright.
“We took off the whole day of school just to get up here and we played a good team. I’m just proud of the guys for fighting all the way through,” Parker said. “We have a real good team coming back (next year). We return five or six starters based on today.”
No. 5 Dos Pueblos (24-4) has its work cut out in the quarterfinals. DP and Newport have already met this season, with the Sailors winning 7-4.
The Chargers think they can do better if they clean up a few parts of their game that hurt them the first time around, like converting a better percentage of 6-on-5 opportunities.
“Really what it comes down to is making our shots,” Cappon said. “We need to capitalize on whatever we can really, because they are not a team that gives up too many opportunities to score.”
Friday’s quarterfinal matchup begins at 3:15 in Orange County.
DOS PUEBLOS 18, SAN CLEMENTE 5
DP 6 4 2 6 – 18
SC 2 0 2 1 – 5
DP Goals – Racich 5, Cappon 5, Shoemaker 3, Terpening 1, Rassler 1, Rearden.
SC Goals – Mitchell, Cousineau, Klein, Alosio
Congrats on the win DP…And great to see Christian back in the pool!