Merced boys, girls water polo teams eliminated

The Merced High School boys water polo team had five man-up situations in the second quarter against Lodi and failed to score on all five occasions.

The Bears’ inability to capitalize on the ejections allowed the Flames to pull away and eventually end Merced’s season with a 14-5 win Tuesday morning in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I quarterfinals at Tokay High School.

Lodi (17-13) outscored Merced 5-1 in the second quarter to take an 8-2 lead into halftime.

“We couldn’t convert in that quarter,” said Bears senior Josh Fluetsch, who had two goals and three steals. “Six-on-five has never been our strong suit all season, which is a bummer because it’s definitely missed opportunities. When you’re up six on five, you should score every time. We would have stayed in the game longer if we scored.”

The Bears didn’t have an answer for Lodi’s Noah Carniglia early. The junior scored five of his seven goals in the first half.

Merced came out intent on stopping Colin Porter with its top defensive player, Ethan Eagleton, who finished with five steals.

“We didn’t get the right matchups early enough,” said Bears coach Kit Grattan, whose team finished 20-8. “We thought (Porter) was their number one guy, and then the first two or three minutes, they kept going to (Carniglia). We finally put Ethan on him, and he was the only guy that could shut him down.”

The Flames won the transition battle as they turned steals into easy goals. Merced turned over the ball 16 times. Meanwhile, the Bears came away with 15 steals but struggled to convert them into goals.

“They play a lot more club than we do, and they’re strong fundamentally,” Fluetsch said. “They didn’t give us a lot of opportunities. They’re a good team.”

Merced made only three of its 10 shots in man-up situations.

“We didn’t move the ball well,” Grattan said. “We didn’t get in the right positions we needed to be in. When you don’t move the ball, the defense doesn’t have to move.”

Lodi advanced to face Davis on Thursday in the semifinals.

Girls

Del Oro 14, Merced 4 – The Merced girls ran into some of the same problems as the boys.

Ultimately, the Bears (23-7) just ran into a better team in the Golden Eagles.

Del Oro took advantage of several Merced ejections and man-up situations to build a 10-2 lead by the end of the third quarter.

“There was a lot of tough ejections for us, and that put us in a bad spot,” Merced coach Seth Gentry said. “That was a more experienced team. They had a lot more experience than we do. They took care of business.”

Carrisa Johnston and Lillian Stanwick scored four goals apiece to pace Del Oro, which will face Davis in the semifinals Thursday.

Savannah Hall had a nice game for the Bears, scoring a goal and picking up two assists and four steals. Kathryn Elgin, Jande Monteon and Laurel Carpenter added goals.

“The girls still had an amazing year,” Gentry said. “I’m really proud of what they did this year.”

This story was originally published November 11, 2014 at 9:41 PM with the headline "Merced boys, girls water polo teams eliminated."