The Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions field contains the entire top-10 in Division 1 of the Southern Section.
No surprises for Saturday’s semifinals at the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions as none of the top seeds were seriously challenged on Day 1.
Southern Section No. 1 Laguna Beach will face Corona del Mar in one semifinal while Foothill and Newport Harbor will meet in the other. The Breakers are the tournament’s defending champions.
The closest quarterfinal featured Corona del Mar defeating Orange Lutheran 10-7. The Sea Queens led 6-4 at halftime and extended the lead to 10-6 by the end of the third quarter.
Local schools Dos Pueblos and San Marcos both won first-round games before losing in the quarterfinals. The Chargers topped higher-seeded Los Alamitos 10-8 in the first round and then lost to Foothill 12-4.
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San Marcos bested Santa Margarita 11-4 on Friday morning, but had to face Laguna Beach in the quarterfinals and was beat 14-4. Speaking to Roth before the Laguna Beach game, the Royals head coach looked forward to his team facing the Breakers.
“I think we just got to get some experience playing at that level. They’re really good,” Roth said. “I’m excited to have the opportunity to play them. We’re just going to try and keep up with them.”
Roth gave credit to the team’s defensive effort for the win over Santa Margarita.
“We pressed really well, and aside from that it wasn’t our best offensive effort,” Roth said.
Chargers head coach Chris Parrish was impressed with the victory over Los Alamitos, calling it the best win of Dos Pueblos’ season to this point. The Chargers are ranked No. 8 in Division 1 and Los Al is No. 5.
“It was just a great win against a ranked Division-1 team,” Parrish said.
Ryann Neushul was a rock for the Chargers. The freshman scored three goals, drew four ejections and three five-meter penalty shots. In the next game, Neushul forced six exclusions and two more five-meter opportunities.
“(Ryann) played tremendously,” Parrish said. “On the day, she just got beat up.”
Dos Pueblos goalie Petra Huebner blocked 15 shots in the two games.
The host Dons suffered a pair of losses. Orange Lutheran defeated Santa Barbara 9-5 in the first round, followed by a tough sudden-death 12-11 overtime loss for the Dons against Royal.
Kristina Garcia’s four goals led the Dons in their first game while Grace Raisin and Jessie Brummett shared the team lead in the second game with two each. Jessee Ransone’s five steals in the first game was a team-high in either game.
The Dons face Santa Margarita at 9 a.m. on Saturday.
