It was crazy.
But that’s the way the girls water polo matches between Santa Barbara and Laguna Beach have gone this season.
Meeting in the quarterfinals of the 12th annual Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions on Friday, the Dons were clinging to a 7-5 lead midway through the fourth quarter when their sophomore goalie Maddie Trabucco was ejected for a foul during a scramble in front of the cage.
The Dons’ field players guarded the cage as the Breakers worked the ball around for a shot. When the shot was taken, Betsy Hendrix took it on the side of her face, recovered the ball and threw it to the side, out of harm’s way.
But third-seeded Laguna Beach got the ball back and passed it to Jessica Shusko, their top scorer. Shusko unleashed a shot that appeared to be going in, but Trabucco miraculously blocked it as she was swimming back to her position from the bench area.
Hendrix fed Claire Bergthold for a goal with 2:05 left and Santa Barbara hung on for thrilling 8-5 victory that puts it in Saturday’s semifinals.
Kelsey O'Brien played a key role in Santa Barbara's win over Vista in the first round of the Tournament of Champions
“I don’t think I have ever seen that before,” said Santa Barbara coach Mark Walsh of Trabucco’s superwoman defensive play. “Madeline’s never been ejected before, so she didn’t know she could come back in, so she came back in late.”
“My coach was telling me, ‘You’re in, you’re in,’” Trabucco said. “I didn’t know. I went back in and I knew Jessie was going to shoot it and I blocked it.”
The victory was sweet revenge for the Dons. In their last meeting at the Newport Holiday Cup, there was an issue with the game clock and the Dons had a tying goal taken away and lost 5-4 to the Breakers in the quarterfinals.
Top-seeded Dos Pueblos had a drama-free first day and advanced to the semifinals. The Chargers opened with an 18-4 rout of Coronado and then pulled away in the second half from a scrappy Montebello team for a 12-5 victory. The two wins extend their winning streak to 50 in a row, passing Foothill’s 49 for second on the all-time list. Bell Gardens holds the record with a streak of 86 wins.
In Saturday’s semifinals, DP (14-0) faces once-beaten Newport Harbor (12-1), the team it beat for its third straight CIF title last year. Game time is 11:10 at Santa Barbara’s pool.
Santa Barbara (11-4) faces second-seeded Los Alamitos (16-1) in the second semifinal match at 12:15 p.m.
The championship is scheduled at 4:35.
Los Alamitos advanced to semifinals with wins over Mater Dei (11-5) and San Clemente (13-5). Newport Harbor, the fourth seed, defeated Long Beach Wilson (7-4) and Corona del Mar (7-4).
Dons junior Charlotte Hendrix takes a shot attempt on Friday.
Santa Barbara got two goals each from Charlotte Hendrix, Makenzy Fowler and Betsy Hendrix in the win over Laguna Beach. But it was the defense that made the difference.
“It was kind of ragged, there wasn’t a lot of good flow to the game,” Walsh said. “But I thought our defense was great and (Maddie’s) play in particular was big.”
Melena Masson and Shusko each scored two goals to lead Laguna Beach.
The Dons got a solid defensive effort from sophomore Kelsey O’Brien and five goals from the Arizona State-bound Fowler to beat Vista 14-6 in their first game of the TOC.
O’Brien was assigned to guard Vista’s scoring machine senior Victoria Williams. Williams, who is committed to Cal-Berkeley, scored on some impressive shots, but O’Brien and the Dons contained her for the majority of the game.
“She made some shots that were out of this world, but I thought we did a good job with her,” said Walsh. “They didn’t use the center as much as a lot of other teams. That allowed us to take Kelsey O’Brien, who usually defends, and move her more to perimeter guarding against No. 11 and I thought she really did a good job.”
Williams did manage to score just before that halftime buzzer to pull Vista to within two goals at 6-4.
The Dons didn’t allow the defending San Diego Section Division 1 champions to generate momentum at the start of the second half. Trabucco blocked a shot by Williams at the start of the third period, and on another possession the shot clock expired before Vista could get off a shot.
At that point, Fowler took over the game. She fed Sophie Trabucco for a goal and scored the next two, putting the Dons ahead 9-4. She had three goals in the second half.
Charlotte Hendrix had four assists to go along with three goals. Betsy Hendrix also scored three and Marina Casso-Cloonan added two.
CHARGERS CRUISE
Dos Pueblos got three goals from Stanford-bound Kiley Neushul in the second period to break open the first-round game against Coronado. She finished with five.
Five Chargers scored goals in the third period as the lead grew to 13-3.
Jaime Neushul and Tiera Schroeder each had three goals in the win.
Against Montebello, the No. 2-ranked team in CIF-SS Division 2, Dos Pueblos led 5-4 at halftime before it turned up the defensive pressure and held Montebello to one goal for the rest of the game.
“In the second half, it just came together,” DP coach Chris Parrish said.
Jaime Neushul scored 14 seconds into the second half and Kiley Neushul scored 30 seconds later off a nice pass from Schroeder on a counterattack. Kiley Neushul scoed again to give DP an 8-4 lead after the third period.
Jaime Neushul fed Schroeder to make it 9-4 in the fourth period before Montebello ended its scoring drought.
First-day scores
Group A—Dos Pueblos 18, Coronado 4; Montebello 9, Agoura 7
Group B—San Clemente 10, Foothill 8; Los Alamitos 11, Mater Dei 5
Group C—Laguna Beach 12 Edison 7; Santa Barbara 14, Vista 6
Group D—Newport Harbor 7, Long Beach Wilson 4; Corona del Mar 13, Santiago 10
Quarterfinals
Dos Pueblos 12, Montebello 5
Newport Harbor 7, Corona del Mar 4
Los Alamitos 13, San Clemente 5
Santa Barbara 8, Laguna Beach 5
Consolation
Agoura 13, Coronado 7
Santiago 11, LB Wilson 5
Foothill 7, Mater Dei 6
Edison 12, Vista 9
