IN SPORTS: TOKAY GIRLS WIN; BOYS POSTPONED
How do you beat the Tokay High girls water polo team? Lincoln showed on Monday that if you take away Nicole Iturraran, the Tigers will struggle.
St. Mary’s was not able to take Iturraran’s scoring out of the game on Wednesday in an 18-5 Tokay victory, with Iturraran scoring 11 of those goals.
“She is who we give the ball to, and she has to make things happen, but we have other girls that need to step up and take a little more opportunity,” Tokay coach Courtney Porter said. “We designed some things for her, of course, and Lincoln was very good about taking that away, so we’re moving now towards putting other people in positions where if Nicole is doubled, like she was against Lincoln, then they have to step up and put thing away as well.
“We knew it was going to happen, it’s just a matter of letting it happen and to execute is a big thing.”
The Tokay boys, meanwhile, may have found the only way anybody in the Tri-City Athletic League this year is going to prevent the Rams’ boys team from getting a win — with a thunderstorm rolling in, the boys game was postponed due to visible lightning.
That only delayed the inevitable, though. The Rams and Tigers are tentatively set to play Friday, though Tokay athletic director Michael Holst said they are still working on a set day.
So while that lightning wasn’t visible yet during the girls game, its thunder provided an ominous soundtrack to the Tigers’ domination of the St. Mary’s defense. Iturraran got herself open in front of the net early and often, and fought through the occasional double team. Lizzie Macfarlane added five goals, and Hannah Ortiz had two. In the cage, goalkeeper Alaina Stoop had eight saves.
“They’re down a little bit. They’re young, but they’ve got some talented young girls in the program,” Porter said about the Rams. “We were a little worried about how we’d come out after a tough game at Lincoln, so we’re happy we got that under our belt, and of course we’ve got Lodi on Monday. It’s rare when we’ve got an opportunity to beat St. Mary’s, so we’re pretty excited about it.”
Tokay (3-1 in the TCAL, 8-1)
needed just 15 seconds to get on the board. The Tigers won the opening sprint to the ball and worked the ball downfield to Iturraran, who scored from directly in front of the cage. With three Iturraran goals, two from Macfarlane and one from Ortiz, Tokay led 6-1 after the first quarter, then opened that up to an 11-2 advantage at halftime.
Three quick Iturraran goals in the third quarter kept the Tokay train rolling, and two late St. Mary’s goals from Maggie Bria were a moot point.
The Tigers have another storm cloud just over the horizon — a matchup with crosstown rival Lodi, in what will be another big test.
“We’re playing better than I anticipated at the beginning of the year,” Porter said. “We have a lot of young girls who haven’t had much experience at all, and even today was a big game for them. I’m excited about where we are right now, and we’ll take each step.”