‘I’m proud just being in this game.’ 3 Merced County teams fall short in title games
“Let’s go Buhach! Let’s go Buhach!”
Those were the chants the El Capitan High boys water polo team belted out as they cheered on their fellow Central California Conference school during the Thunder’s Sac-Joaquin Section Division II championship game against Bella Vista at the Roseville Aquatic Center.
Saturday was a Merced County water polo showcase with three teams vying for a section championship.
Despite, the El Capitan and Buhach Colony boys and Gauchos girls all coming home empty handed, it was still a banner day for Merced water polo.
“I don’t remember a six seed even making it here to the championship game,” said Buhach Colony coach Dan McIlhatton. “It shows how hard these guys worked and some of them it was four years of hard work. I’m proud just being in this game.”
Bella Vista 6, Buhach Colony 5 — The Thunder defense played well, limiting the top seed to just six goals. However, the Broncos defense was even better.
The game was tied 3-3 at the half and then Bella Vista outscored the Thunder 3-0 in the third quarter to open a 6-3 lead.
“Our goal is to give up one goal per quarter,” McIlhatton said. “Our defense played great. The problem was their defense shut us down. They ran an all-out drop on our number one offensive guy Jack (Bustabade). They did a good job of plugging up the middle and we had a hard time shooting around their hands.”
Bustabade scored the first two Thunder goals, but was shut out the rest of the way.
Jared Hoffart led BC with three goals. Brayden Fookes finished with three steals and goalie Gannon Groth stopped 10 shots.
Buhach Colony closed the deficit to 6-5 late in the game, but couldn’t pull even.
Oakdale 14, El Capitan 12 — The Gauchos had the early game and the Mustangs may have caught El Capitan still sleeping as Oakdale jumped out to a 4-2 lead in the first quarter.
The Mustangs scored the first two goals of the game and never trailed.
Gauchos first-year coach Connor Greene conceded it may have been nerves from El Capitan playing in its first section title game. He admits he was nervous.
El Capitan fought its way back in the game as Rocco Cuttone led the way with four goals. Dylan Webber and Jacob Gresham both added two goals.
Greene said erasing early deficits haven’t been a problem for El Capitan.
“We’re used to that,” he said. “We’ve had a couple games like that. We’ve come back from a four-point difference and won by one or more goals. But it’s not a nice place to be in a section championship game.”
El Capitan got as close as one goal in the third quarter but couldn’t pull even in the second half.
“It’s the first time this program has been in a section final,” Greene said. “We did it with a brand new coach. These guys had to train differently than they’ve trained the past couple years. We had a goalie (Jayden Abarca), who had never played goalie before. He’s worked himself into a goalie I could be proud of.”
The section title was the first one for the Oakdale boys, who lost in the section championship last year to Christian Brothers.
Girls
Rio Americano 17, El Capitan 8 — The top-seeded Raiders scored seven third-quarter goals to pull away for No. 2 El Capitan.
Rio Americano showed off their speed in the water with their ability to counter as they turned the Gauchos’ mistakes into quick points on the other side of the pool.
“They were physical too,” said El Capitan coach Kristie Dunham. “They were super physical. They shut down Kendall (Thomas). I thought they did a good job making their open shots.”
Rio Americano’s Gianna Nocetti scored six goals and Sophie Eiserman added three scores.
Thomas led the Gauchos with four goals and Samantha Verrinder added two scores from long distance.
“We have to get better if we want to win section championships,” Dunham said. “I thought the girls played well. Making a section final is a huge accomplishment and I’m super proud of the girls.”
The season isn’t over for the three teams as they will find out where they will open the Northern California Regional playoffs next week.
