Stevenson back in championship match with victory
A mere 22 hours before getting back into the water doesn't give Stevenson a lot of time to prepare for an opponent that it just caught a glimpse of earlier in the day.
Instead of a film session, preparation for Saturday's Northern California Division III girls water polo title match will include a movie and perhaps a tour of the University of Pacific campus.
“We're still trying to figure it out,” Stevenson girls coach Jon Burke said. “We are going to talk about it. We'll go back to hotel and maybe catch a matinee.
We're excited to be back in the CIF finals.”
Stevenson's two-night stay in Stockton was a wise decision after it knocked off top-seed Mitty of San Jose 13-9 Friday to advance to its second straight championship, where it will face No. 3 seed Buhach Colony of Atwater on Saturday at 10 a.m.
Buhach Colony knocked off No. 2 seed Garces Memorial 8-5. The SAC Joaquin Section champions are 28-5 this fall and have scored 32 goals in the tournament.
“We watched them,” Burke said. “They defend well. The goalie is good. They have a few players that can swim and score. It's a good matchup for us.”
The Thunder, who shared their league championship with El Capitan, defeated them 11-9 in the SJS Division III title match. Stevenson knocked off El Capitan 12-8 on Tuesday in the opening round to set a school record for wins.
“The girls wanted another shot at this,” Burke said. “The semis is the match with the most nerves. You hope the title match is energy, execution and culture. What we will emphasis is `let's have fun tomorrow.'”
The No. 4 seeded Pirates (24-7), who have won seven straight matches and are 5-0 in the postseason, fell in the title match last year to Woodcreek of Roseville 11-10.
“We're one of six teams left in the region still playing,” said Burke, who has guided Stevenson to two Central Coast Section Division II titles. “There are 200 other teams back home thinking about eating turkey.”
A 12-time CCS champion coach, Burke noticed in watching film of Mitty that its players rely heavily on their arms and upper bodies while in the water.
“This is a sport that is best played with the use of your legs,” Burke said. “We drove on them. We posted on them. We got them in a lot of foul trouble. We were able to capitalize. We made the referees blow the whistle.”
What transpired was 23 exclusions (penalties) in which Mitty was forced to play minus a player 20 seconds for each exclusion. Two of their players picked up three major fouls and were excluded from the game in the second half.
“We had a lot of opportunities with time on the clock,” Burke said. “We put them on their heels, forced them to go to their bench. We were able to control the tempo of the game and score.”
While the game was tied at 2-2 and later 4-4 in the first half, the Pirates never trailed in the match, taking command in the second half on the strength of its top two scorers in Emmerson Ferriera and Miranda Salinger.
The pair, who have both produced over 100 goals this year, combined for nine, with Salinger leading the team with five, while Jacqui Powers and Arielle Dale both contributed a pair.
“We watch a lot of film, especially in the postseason because we don't see these teams,” Burke said. “What I do is I let the players make the observations.”
With goalie Anna Mitchell collecting 10 saves, allowing just one goal in the final seven minutes, the Pirates — the only county boys or girls water polo team to win a CCS title — are chasing another milestone.