El Capitan holds on for first playoff win in girls water polo
Hope Stokes felt the tears coming instantly when she thought about what the first girls water polo playoff win in El Capitan history meant to the team.
“I’m going to cry,” the Gauchos senior said. “I’m speechless. It’s so amazing. It’s kind of like waking up from a dream that feels so real. It’s so real that you don’t want to wake up.”
The host Gauchos’ 10-9 victory over Oakmont in the quarterfinals of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III playoffs was real on Thursday night.
Fourth-seeded El Capitan (21-6) advances to play No. 1 El Camino, which defeated Benicia 12-4, in the semifinals at Johansen High School in Modesto on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.
I’m going to cry. I’m speechless. It’s so amazing. It’s kind of like waking up from a dream that feels so real. It’s so real that you don’t want to wake up.
El Capitan senior Hope Stokes
The Gauchos received strong performances from Stokes (four goals), Metztli Enriquez (three goals), Marion Carpenter (three goals and three assists) and goalie Toni Perez (seven saves).
“I thought Metztli Enriquez was definitely our player of the game,” El Capitan coach Kristie Dunham said. “She was on fire. She took control on defense, and on offense she drew three or four ejections. She scored some important goals for us.
“One thing about this team is we’re spread out offensively, and you saw that with Hope Stokes scoring some big goals and Marion Carpenter scoring. That was big against their zone.”
The Gauchos are playing just their second season of varsity water polo since the school opened in 2013. El Capitan already has two Western Athletic Conference titles. The Gauchos lost in the first round of the playoffs last season to Kimball 15-6.
The nerves showed early as El Capitan’s shots clanged off the cage throughout the first quarter. Oakmont’s Morgan Jones scored two goals in the final 1:34 of the quarter to give the Vikings a 2-1 lead.
“We had eight shots off the cage in the first quarter,” Dunham said. “We had super big jitters. All of my starting lineup is juniors. We still don’t have that mental toughness where we feel we’re going to come out and get it done. It’ll come. We should have been up 5 to 1 early.”
Enriquez helped the Gauchos settle into the game as she scored early in the second quarter off a pass from Carpenter to tie the score 2-2.
Facing a tough goalie in Oakmont’s Kaylyn Slatter, El Capitan knew it was important to press and counter to take advantage of scoring opportunities in transition.
“It was definitely scary going up against her,” Enriquez said. “I just tried to move around and shoot for the low corners and high corners. I just tried to outsmart the goalie.”
After Jones (five goals) scored on a man-up situation to give the Vikings (18-7) a 3-2 lead, El Capitan answered with three consecutive goals to close out the half.
Stokes started the rally with a goal to tie the score 3-3 with 5:42 left in the second quarter. Enriquez followed by chasing down a shot from Alexandria Jasso that hit the cage and scoring on the rebound to give El Capitan a 4-3 lead with 4:10 left in the half.
I thought Metztli Enriquez was definitely our player of the game. She was on fire. She took control on defense, and on offense she drew three or four ejections. She scored some important goals for us. One thing about this team is we’re spread out offensively, and you saw that with Hope Stokes scoring some big goals and Marion Carpenter scoring. That was big against their zone.
El Capitan coach Kristie Dunham
The Gauchos then took advantage of a man-up situation as Oakmont’s Mackenzie Crouch was ejected. The left-handed Carpenter scored with 3:41 left in the half to give El Capitan a 5-3 lead and force Oakmont coach Casey Cornilsen to call a timeout to stop the Gauchos’ momentum.
El Capitan led the rest of the way but never was able to pull away.
The Gauchos led 10-7 with 2:31 remaining after Stokes scored her fourth goal. Oakmont battled back with goals from Jamie Sepulvado and Lauren Walike to cut the lead to 10-9 with 34 seconds left.
“It’s nerve-wracking to look up and see the score and they’re down by just one,” Stokes said. “One goal could have changed it all.”
The Vikings regained possession with 4.8 seconds left and called a timeout. Jones managed to get a shot off at the buzzer, but it glanced off the left post to end the game.
“The nerves were killing me all day,” Enriquez said. “To win is so fulfilling because of all the work we’ve put in at practice. This is the best feeling in the world so far for me.”
Shawn Jansen: 209-385-2462, @MSSsports
This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 10:01 PM with the headline "El Capitan holds on for first playoff win in girls water polo."