Shannon Cleary picked up the scoring slack for Dos Pueblos’ girls water polo team in Tuesday’s Channel League game against San Marcos, scoring three times in the Chargers’ 5-2 victory.
The Royals held DP’s Jamie Neushul to a season low in scoring and shut out the Chargers in the first quarter.
Dos Pueblos responded with two goals by Cleary in the second quarter to take the lead for good. Cleary tied the game 1-1 with 5:07 left in the second quarter. The junior drew an ejection and scored on the next play by grabbing a rebound. Cleary’s second came three and a half minutes later on an assist from Neushul.
Neushul didn’t score her one goal until late in the third quarter, giving DP a 3-1 lead going into the final period.
The five goals scored was a low for Dos Pueblos in Channel League play.
“They played really good team defense. They came out with a plan and executed it,” said Neushul.
Dos Pueblos’ Stanford-bound senior was routinely pressed on the perimeter and experienced regular double and triple teams closer to the cage.
The Chargers lost starter Jordan Williams to injury in the first quarter.
“One that I was really hoping was going to be a big part of the game today ended up going out in the first quarter,” said Dos Pueblos head coach Chris Parrish.
Halie Johnson scored for San Marcos in the first quarter less than two minutes in. The Royals would not score again until Hailey Gellert beat Chargers goalie Britten Vilander with 1:03 remaining in the game.
“I think we’re doing better than we have on defense. We definitely made less mistakes,” Cleary said.
Cleary added an assist on Ari St. Oegger’s goal that made the score 4-1. Cleary’s third goal of the game pushed the Chargers’ lead back up to three after Gellert’s goal gave the Royals a glimmer of hope near the end.
The result gives the Channel League standings more clarity, with Santa Barbara at 6-0, Dos Pueblos at 4-1, and San Marcos at 3-3.
