Huntington Beach girls’ water polo sunk by Santa Barbara in CIF opener
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The Huntington Beach High School girls’ water polo team fell to Santa Barbara 10-7 in a CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoff opener on Wednesday, ending the season for the Oilers.
Layla Szymczak led the Dons with three goals and an assist, and Allison Bartholomew also had a hat-trick for Santa Barbara (16-13), which advances to face No. 2-seeded Studio City Harvard-Westlake, a 22-3 winner over Corona Santiago in the first round.
Gabrielle Zaretskiy, Jericho Callender and Marley Garwick each scored twice for Huntington Beach (13-11), which shared the Wave League championship with Edison this season. Ryan Flory also found the net once.
The score was tied at 2-2 at the end of the first quarter. Santa Barbara’s Abigail Webber broke the deadlock. After Garwick banked a shot in off the far post from seven meters out, Bartholomew had the answer to give the Dons a 4-3 lead, one that they would not relinquish for the remainder of the contest.
Defensively, Santa Barbara was effective in forcing Huntington Beach to shoot from the perimeter, even with the presence of Zaretskiy working in front of the cage.
“She had great position,” Santa Barbara coach Mark Walsh said of Zaretskiy. “We had to help a lot. We have a couple of really good defenders, [Olivia Obando and Sophie Johnson] who tried to match up with her at all times. She was strong enough and good enough to get good position, and she set up her teammates a lot. … She was definitely a focal point of our game plan.”
Santa Barbara led 5-3 at halftime and 8-5 at the end of the third quarter. Callender, a Concordia-bound senior, was able to score on a break down the left side with 29 seconds left, the final offensive possession of her career with the Oilers.
“It was the last quarter, we were lining up, and I was just like, ‘Oh my gosh, this could be our last game, but I’m just going to go out there, do my best the last quarter, give it all I got,’” Callender said. “That last goal, I was like, ‘Oh my god.’ It’s a great way to finish off the season.”
The playoff-opening loss is expected to be the final one as the head coach of the Oilers for Jacob Moore, who shared that he plans to step down from that role. Moore’s teams won a league championship in each of his three seasons at the helm.
“I’m going to go back to school,” Moore said. “I think it’s obviously the important thing. I think if we’re preaching to our players all the time about how important school is, I think it’s important that I finish it.”
Huntington Beach began the season by dropping its first three games, which marked its longest losing streak of the season. After being defeated in their first meeting with Edison, the Oilers rebounded by winning a season-best four games in a row.
Although it was not a streaky team, Huntington Beach prided itself on defense, the backbone of which was junior goalkeeper Marilyn Rodriguez. She made eight saves against Santa Barbara, including five stops in the second quarter and a penalty-shot save against Szymczak in the third period.
“Unfortunately, she doesn’t have some of the same advantages [as] playing at one of the top [Division] 1 schools,” Moore said of Rodriguez. “I think with the program that she’s in, she’s probably the most talented player on this team, and she definitely keeps us in every game defensively.
“I’ve been talking to several high Division 1 colleges about trying to get her. It’s my priority before I leave here.”
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