Buhach Colony girls rally to defeat El Capitan to win first section water polo title
The Buhach Colony High School girls water polo team erased a four-goal deficit in the second half to win the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II championship with an 11-9 victory over El Capitan on Saturday at the Roseville Aquatic Center.
It’s the first blue banner for the Thunder aquatics program. Buhach Colony reached the section championship game last year before falling to Woodcreek.
“We set goals knowing that getting back to the finals could be a possibility,” said Buhach Colony coach A.J. Abril. “Our athletes trained all offseason to better their skill sets. The coaches gave the athletes opportunities and the athletes seized those.”
The championship game was an all-Central California Conference affair with the conferences two co-champions from Merced County squaring off for the title.
It was the fourth time No. 1 seed El Capitan (22-8) and No. 2 Buhach Colony (26-5) have played this season with the two teams splitting their two matchups in CCC play and the Gauchos picking up another win in a tournament.
Abril said he was so proud of the Merced County water polo community.
“The blue banner was going to be won by a Merced Union High School District school,” Abril said. “I have so much respect for the El Cap players and coaches. It’s a great group of athletes and individuals. The last few years we’ve spent supporting each other. It was great to see us battle it out all the way to the end.”
The game closely contested throughout with the Gauchos opening up a 7-3 lead in the third quarter.
Thunder senior Kyley Abril helped lead a comeback, scoring two goals to help BC tie the game at 8-8 heading into the fourth quarter.
Kyley Abril then added two more fourth-quarter goals and Eliza Marquez scored a goal to help Buhach Colony take an 11-8 lead in the fourth quarter as the Thunder closed the game with an 8-2 run to win the championship.
“Our girls never stopped believing they had a shot to win this thing,” A.J. Abril said. “We went back to to relying on our defense to get us back in. Eliza Marquez, Macie Drum and Kyley Abril had some great defensive steals at the end to give us the ball back and allowed us to control the clock.”
Kylie Abril finished with five goals. Thunder teammate Macie Drum added three goals and Marquez added two goals.
Anali Sebastain, Kiryn Wicker and Abby Fernandez all scored three goals for the Gauchos.
“We wanted this and (the players) deserved it,” A.J. Abril said. “We are all proud of our community, our school, our coaches and our athletes. We wouldn’t be here without the love and support.”
