Youngsters lead the way for Dons in CIF opener

Jessica Gaffney, who scored four goals for the Dons, sets to fire in one of her goals.

With so many underclassmen in the lineup, the future looks bright for the Santa Barbara High girls water polo team.

As far as the young players are concerned, though, they want to win a CIF championship now.

Kelsey O'Brien was the high scorer for the Dons with five goals.

The Dons took their first step toward a title on Wednesday by rolling past visiting Palos Verdes 13-2. The win sets up a quarterfinal date at Corona del Mar on Friday. The teams met in December in the Newport Holiday Cup and Santa Barbara took a 7-3 decision.

The youngsters played big for the Dons in their Division 1 opener as sophomore Kelsey O’Brien scored five goals, freshman Jessica Gaffney tallied four and sophomore goalie Maddie Trabucco blocked nine shots.

O’Brien and Gaffney accounted for all the scoring in a 6-0 first half. Gaffney scored two goals off O’Brien assists. She put in the first one off a cross-pool pass and made the second on a rebound after O’Brien drilled a shot off the post.

“I thought she was great,” said Santa Barbara coach Mark Walsh of Gaffney. “A lot of times freshmen get pretty nervous. She was really composed. I thought she played perfect water polo. She played great defense and she shot 4 for 4.”

Asked how she felt making her CIF playoff debut, Gaffney said, “I was nervous the entire day. I had butterflies.”

She said the team didn’t play its best in the first period, but stepped it the rest of the way.

“We played much better, much crisper and finished our shots,” she said.

The Dons (20-8) had chances to score more, but Palos Verdes goalie Isabel Bethencourt was on fire and turned away several shots, including a 2-meter penalty shot. She finished with eight saves.

Trabucco also was solid in the cage for Santa Barbara, coming up with nine saves.

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Palos Verdes’ offense hasn’t been the same since the departure of star junior Monica Vavic, the daughter of USC coach Jovan Vavic. She transferred schools in mid-January.

The Sea Kings didn’t get on the scoreboard until Katie Contreras found the back of the net at the 6:08 mark of the third period. That made the score 7-1.

Gaffney answered right back for the Dons and senior Makenzy Fowler followed with a rifle shot for a 9-1 lead.

O’Brien was all over the pool for Santa Barbara. Besides in her five goals, she had five assists and four steals.

“I thought Kelsey did a nice job today,” Walsh said. “She’s always great defensively, which she was. Every time she found herself a little bit open, we were able to get her the ball and she was able to score. She made our offense better today.”

The big lead allowed Walsh to empty his bench in the fourth period.

Elsewhere in Division 1, Corona del Mar defeated Fountain Valley 12-6.

In the other lower-bracket quarterfinal, second-seeded Los Alamitos will meet No. 7 seeded Foothill.

In the top half of the draw, No. 1 seeded and two-time defending champion Dos Pueblos travels to Edison while fourth-seeded Newport Harbor plays at No. 5 Laguna Beach.