Santana leads Merced past Golden Valley in boys water polo

Abraham Santana turned in a nice all-around game, finishing with four goals, four assists and seven steals to help lead the Merced High School boys water polo team to a 12-9 win over visiting Golden Valley on Monday evening.

The Bears improved to 4-2 in the Central California Conference and remained two games behind Atwater through the first half of league play.

Alec Propes had five goals, and goaltender Nathan Latronica stopped six shots for Merced.

Golden Valley’s Tommy Hamilton scored a game-high six goals.

Atwater 9, Buhach Colony 6 in Atwater – Luke van Warmerdam and Connor Norton scored three goals each to help the Falcons hold off the Thunder. Norton had three steals and van Warmerdam picked up two steals as the Falcons improved to 6-0 in the CCC.

Garrett Groth led Buhach Colony with four goals and teammate Joe Bustabade had two goals, two assists and three steals.

Livingston 10, Pacheco 7 in Livingston – Logan Frissen had seven goals as the Wolves improved to 2-0 in the Western Athletic Conference. Fernando Mendoza recorded eight saves for Livingston.

Ceres 15, Los Banos 13 in Ceres – Kyle Burke scored seven goals and Corey Gardner added four goals, but it wasn’t enough for the Tigers (0-2 WAC).

Girls water polo

Merced 18, Golden Valley 3 in Merced – Anjoleena Garza and Hailee Miranda had four goals each to help the Bears (2-4 CCC) rout the Cougars. Grace Mello led Golden Valley with two goals.

Buhach Colony 11, Atwater 8 in Atwater – Pam Solano scored three goals to go with five assists and three steals as the Thunder improved to 5-1 in the CCC and stayed one game behind El Capitan. Gwynne McBride had three goals and four steals and Regina Navarro recorded 11 saves for Buhach Colony.

Livingston 14, Pacheco 9 in Livingston – Mariz Fuentes had six goals and four assists to help Livingston even its WAC record at 1-1. Nicole Michael had two goals and three assists for the Wolves.

Ceres 12, Los Banos 9 in Ceres – Cameron Lowe, Savannah Valenzuela and Kaitlin Downward scored two goals each for the Tigers (1-1 WAC). Kendra Gerstenberg scored one goal and recorded seven saves for Los Banos.

Girls volleyball

Le Grand 3, Orestimba 0 in Le Grand – Arisbeth Ceja paced the Bulldogs (7-3, 5-2 Southern League) with 16 kills and four digs, and Alexis Aguallo had 13 digs and seven aces in a 25-13, 25-19, 26-24 win over the Warriors.

Girls golf

Merced 199, Pitman 229 in Modesto – Phoebe Arista led the Bears (5-3 CCC) with a 37 and teammates Zoe Robertson and Juliana Slagter each shot a 40.

This story was originally published October 4, 2016 at 3:42 PM with the headline "Santana leads Merced past Golden Valley in boys water polo."