Buhach Colony girls water polo continues historic season with NorCal victory over Ripon
The dream season for the Buhach Colony High School water polo team will continue after the Thunder defeated Ripon in the first round of the Northern California Division III playoffs on Tuesday night.
Fresh off winning their first ever Sac-Joaquin Section championship on Saturday, BC won its first NorCal playoff game three days later.
“Where does our story stop?” asked Buhach Colony coach A.J. Abril. “How far we can take this thing? How many firsts can we get? We won our first section championship, we won our first NorCal playoff game and it was the first time we got to host a Norcal playoff game.”
Both No. 6 seed Ripon and No. 3 Buhach Colony had the difficult task of turning the page after winning section championships on Saturday and playing a regional game three days later.
Ripon (21-11) won the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IIII championship and Buhach Colony took home the Division II title.
“We had to mentally reset and go back to work and do it all over again,” Abril said.
Fortunately for both teams they were playing a familiar opponent with the Thunder and Indians squaring off twice earlier this season with Buhach Colony winning both times.
The Thunder took control early on Tuesday as Joslyn Stevens, Macie Drum both scoring three first-half goals to help BC open up a 9-5 lead at the half.
“Our coach told us it’s hard to beat a good team three times,” said Drum, who led the Thunder with five goals. “We came out expecting a good game against a good team.”
Ripon cut the lead to three goals a couple times in the second half, but never seriously threatened the Thunder. The Indians were led by Samantha Scheid’s four goals. Faith Fasani added three goals.
Stevens finished with four goals for the Thunder and Kylie Abril added three goals and led the team with five assists and six steals. Goalie Abigail Perez stopped seven shots in the cage.
Buhach Colony will travel to the University of the Pacific in Stockton on Friday to face No. 2 Garces in the semifinals at 10 a.m.
“This team is very close,” Drum said. “We’re all having a lot of fun. We don’t want this to end.”
On the other side of the Division III bracket No. 4 Stevenson defeated No. 5 El Capitan 12-8 and will face No. 1 seed Archbishop Mitty.
This story was originally published November 14, 2023 at 7:45 PM.
