Girls Water polo:
MHS, PHS cruise in quarters
Monache and Porterville high school’s girls water polo teams are both one win away from making the Valley finals. Now the only thing standing in the Marauders’ and Panthers’ way are each other.
The crosstown rivals will play for the fourth time this season at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday at Monache.
The second-seeded Marauders (23-7, 7-1 EYL) sealed their trip to the CIF Central Section Division II semifinals with a 16-5 rout of the seventh-seeded Monarchs of Exeter (17-7) in the quarterfinals at home Saturday.
Third-seeded Porterville (21-7, 7-1 EYL) also had an easy time in its quarterfinal game, a 19-5 win Saturday over sixth-seeded Strathmore (20-7, 9-1 East Sequoia League) at the Granite Hills High School Aquatics Center.
Monache senior Dalaine Beardsly led the way for her team with a five-goal first half before finishing the game with a team-high eight goals.
“It was kind of like, you see an opportunity and you just take it,” Beardsly said about her high-scoring outing. “You kind of can’t hesitate…you go a 100 percent, like either way.”
Both teams took some time to figure each other out in the first quarter, but with the scored tied at 2 and 16 seconds left in the game, Beardsly scored on a skip shot off an assist from senior Mason Beardsly and gave the Marauders a 1-point lead.
Monache broke away from Exeter in the second quarter with the help of a three-goal quarter from Dalaine Beardsly — her highest-scoring quarter of the game. Coming out of the half with a 7-3 lead, the Marauders shut down the Monarchs with a 5-0 third quarter thanks to two goals from Beardsly and goals from freshman Ava Lobue, junior Marie Lobue and sophomore Kalina Weaver.
“I think both teams came out ready to play each other,” MHS head coach Brandon Weaver said. “So it’s always a bash of the big boys right at the beginning and then you kind of chip away at each other and once we got momentum, I was really proud of how we moved the ball.”
Down 12-3 to start the final quarter Exeter scored twice but goals from four different Marauders, including a beautiful penalty shot from senior Rayleen Jensen into the left side of the goal kept the Monarchs from making any more noise. Ava and junior Emily Chapman finished with two goals apiece. Marie, Jensen, Weaver and sophomore Infinity Dignam each had one goal.
“Putting pressure on their passing definitely helped us because they weren’t able to move the ball and set very easily,” Weaver said about the team’s defense.
He added, “Their set was really strong and I thought Rayleen Jensen and Marie Lobue, both of them ended up defending set quite a bit, and they both did really well against her. They kept adjusting to her moves and just played good position defense. And that in combination with pressure worked for us.”
Porterville pounded Strathmore in the two previous meetings this season, 13-3 and 20-5, and Saturday’s game followed suit. The Panthers jumped out to a sizable early lead and substituted liberally in second half with the game in hand.
PHS junior Rosemary Chapman scored 12 seconds into the game from the wing to get Porterville off and running. Chapmen went on to score four more times and assisted on six other goals.
The ESL champion Spartans had no answer for junior Shyanne Rainey, who scored at will from 2-meters. She finished with a game-high 10 goals, four of the backhand variety. She posted three goals in each of the first three quarters.
“I just practice and practice it and it was cool I got to use it in the game,” Rainey said.
Six different Panthers scored in the game and six different players had assists.
“We were able to start off early feeding her (Shyanne) inside and rack off a few there in the beginning,” said PHS coach Lance Hyder. “In the second quarter they made some adjustments and we had to start passing and driving more.”
In goal, junior Samantha Rainey took a shutout into the second half as Porterville led 6-0 after one quarter and 11-0 at the half. She finished with six saves, five coming in
the final quarter.
Rounding out the scoring for Porterville with one goal each were Mallory Tate, Joanna Scheer, Alyssa Bodoh and Allie Whitten.
Strathmore scored its first goal in the third quarter. Madison Bower put the Spartans on the board, scoring off a nice drive 90 seconds into the third quarter.
Bower scored two in the final quarter to lead the Spartans in scoring with three goals. Alec Huth finished with two goals.
Porterville won the last meeting with Monache 11-6 to claim a share of the East Yosemite League title with the Marauders. MHS won the first two each by one goal.
“That last time we played Monache it was a strong game for us, so hopefully we can continue with that — time will tell,” Hyder said.
A win for Monache would put them in the Valley final for the first time, but they’ll have to get past a formidable Porterville team to do it.
“Porterville [is] very strong,” Weaver said. “They were able to get a hold of us in the last game so I think either team we face is going to be a challenge. I think we’re capable, but we’re definitely not overlooking [them].”