Dos Pueblos' Kiley Neushul starts to pass from her left to right hand before taking a shot.
Tiera Schroeder receives a pass as the Canyon goalie scrambles to adjust
Dos Pueblos’ girls water polo team pocketed the first of four wins needed to win another CIF championship on Wednesday, posting a 19-2 final over Canyon of Anaheim at Elings Aquatic Center.
“It makes it easier because now we only need three victories,” said Chargers head coach Chris Parrish, whose team is riding a 64-game winning streak and is seeking its fourth straight CIF title.
“I don’t think we can have any more pressure. The expectations are there.”
DP jumped to a 9-1 lead after the first quarter and gained a 12-1 advantage by halftime. Seven different Chargers scored, led by Tiera Schroeder’s five goals and Kiley Neushul’s four.
“We knew we had to come out strong, just like any game,” said Chargers senior Tiera Schroeder, who scored four of her five in the first quarter.
Dos Pueblos kept the pressure on, even shutting out the Comanches in the third quarter with mostly reserves. Ari St. Oegger scored twice for the Chargers in the third period. Shannon Cleary tallied three goals total.
Dos Pueblos worked on some wrinkles in the fourth quarter that head coach Chris Parrish installed for their CIF run.
“We ran some things in practice, some things we wanted to work on, some things we added for the playoffs that we didn’t run all year because we knew everyone was going to throw their best at us in the playoffs and we needed something to respond with,” he explained.
It’s hard to believe, but the Cal-Berkeley-signed Schroeder said she felt butterflies before Wednesday’s match.
“I had a little nerves. Before every game, there’s a little nerves. We’ve never played them before or met up with them anywhere,” Schroeder said.
Canyon came to Goleta on the heels of a 21-2 Wild-Card victory and knew it would have its hands full with Dos Pueblos, the No. 1 team in the division.
“You try to make them work for everything they got, and unfortunately, we did it for about the first two minutes of the game, and after that, (we) just did not go how (we) were supposed to go,” said Comanches head coach Andrew Thacker.
Kylie Buchanan and Nicole Proulx scored for Canyon.
The victory bettered DP’s season record to 28-0. The Chargers will travel to a second round game on Friday at Edison, which defeated Mira Costa 11-6, after losing a pre-flip.
If the Chargers win their second-round match on Friday, the semifinals and championship match are held at the William Woollett Aquatic Center next week. Semifinals are Wednesday and the championship is Saturday night.
DOS PUEBLOS 19, CANYON 2
DP 9 3 3 4 – 19
Canyon 1 0 0 1 – 2
DP Scores – Tiera Schroeder 5, Kiley Neushul 4, Shannon Cleary 3, Laurel Kistler 2, Ari St. Oegger 2, Nicole Morelos 1, Jamie Neushul 1, Tahnia Mark 1. C Scores – Kylie Buchanan, Nicole Proulx
DP Goalie Saves – Chandler Vilander 3, Brittany Vilander 6
Canyon GOalie Saves – Kristina LaPard
