Dos Pueblos and San Marcos were engaged in a shootout in the first period of their crosstown Channel League water polo match on Thursday. The teams combined for nine goals in the first seven minutes.
Then came the second period.
Playing on Halloween, the period turned into a nightmare for the Royals as Blake Parrish and DP put a stranglehold on them and pulled away to a 13-8 win at the San Marcos pool.
The win clinched the outright league title for the Chargers (7-0). San Marcos fell to 3-3 in league and is in a fight for second place with Ventura (4-3) and Santa Barbara (2-4). They play both teams on the road next week.
Parrish scored all eight of his goals in the first half and spearheaded a defense that held San Marcos’ leading scorer Shane Hauschild to two goals and limited the Royals to just three goals for the rest of the game. They put away four in the first period.
San Marcos came out firing and trailed 5-4 after the first period.
The defenses stepped up in the second period. San Marcos goalie Jack Palmer made three big saves in the first four minutes to keep it a one-goal game. His third save was a spectacular stop on Parrish from point-blank range.
The Royals’ offense, meanwhile, couldn’t shake an aggressive, swarming Chargers defense. Parrish made things difficult for Hauschild whenever he touched the ball. He also got help from Quinn Peacock and Jake Griffin.
“The guys were frustrated letting the goals in,” DP coach Chris Parrish said. “We started tightening up the defense quite a bit. Once we tightened it up, it opened up the offense.”
Then Blake Parrish showed his offensive prowess. The U.S. Junior National team player turned on a defender and fired a shot past Palmer to put the Chargers up 6-4. He later fed Graham Young for a goal on a counterattack, blocked a shot by Hauschild, raced down pool and scored again for an 8-4 lead with 2:41 left in the first half.
Coach Parrish said Blake was fired up to play against his friend and club teammate Hauschild.
“He played great. He kind of had that carrot in front of him, knowing he was going to go against his friend Shane,” said the coach. “I feel like they’re competing for the MVP; they’re going tit for tat, playing really hard against each other. I love Blake’s physical play on defense against Shane. Shane physically pretty much outmatches everyone he plays against because he’s so long. But blake was just tenacious on him and not giving him any easy looks.”
Griffin scored from the perimeter before Hauschild was able to get free and find the cage to end the Chargers’ four-goal run and make it a 9-5 game.
Parrish came back and scored his eighth goal from an extreme angle for a 10-5 DP lead.
“We kept pressing on Shane and tried to shut down their low post, and our goalie stepped up in the last three quarters,” Blake Parrish said of the defensive performance.
San Marcos was unlucky in the third period as several of its shots hit the woodwork. Taylor Gustason of DP also has big block in front of goalie Emil Huebner.
Peacock scored to give the Chargers an 11-5 advantage before George Kuesis finished a counterattack for San Marcos with 27 seconds left in the third period to make it 11-6.
Dos Pueblos put the game out of reach early in the fourth period with a pair of goals. Young scored off a cross from Mahan, and Griffin converted a 5-meter penalty shot after Peacock was fouled.
Kameron Bebb and Spencer Kemp scored the final two goals for San Marcos.
After scoring only four goals in the first meeting with DP (a 6-4 loss) San Marcos coach Jeff Ashton said he felt the team his team needed to be more aggressive offensively in the rematch. When DP’s defense shut it down, it left the Royals vulnerable on the counterattack.
“We were more aggressive but we didn’t convert and that left things open on the other end,” he said. “We started missing our assignments defensively a little bit. They’re good and they did a better job of taking the ball away from Shane than they did last time.
“And, they did a better job of doing different things offensively, as well.”
Griffin and Young scored two goals and Peacock scored one to round out DP’s scoring.
