FAIR OAKS, Calif. – The trio of senior Gauri Mathrakott, senior Ava Stimson and junior Ashlyn Brock scored 20 of the team's 21 goals as St. Francis varsity rolled past host Bella Vista, 21-7, in a non-conference girls' prep water polo game Wednesday evening.
The Troubadours improve to 2-1 for the year. The junior varsity squad, coming off a third-place finish at the Granite Bay JV Jamboree last weekend, posted an 8-4 win over the Broncos to even their season record to 5-5.
Mathrakott netted eight goals with six assists, Stimson hit seven, while Brock scored five. All three outputs represent career highs. Stimson's previous best was a six-goal performance early in her sophomore year against Granite Bay. Mathrakott had a five-goal game against Inderkum almost exactly one year ago as one of her four hat tricks as a junior. Brock, in her first full season on varsity, had two career goals on the team prior to Wednesday's contest.
Despite the final margin, the Troubies had to erase an early deficit before pulling away to their 14-goal win. BV senior Esther Sullivan had two of her five total goals in the first five minutes of play to boost her team to an initial 4-3 lead before SF sophomore Abigail Benavidez powered her way to the equalizer at set with 1:23 left in the first. Mathrakott gave the Troubies the lead at the 0:50 mark in that frame.
In fact, Mathrakott either scored or assisted on eight of St. Francis' nine goals in the first half. She assisted Stimson to put the Troubies on the board 78 seconds into the contest, completed a power play at the 4:14 mark, then converted a Benavidez assist for the hat trick with 3:00 on the clock. Mathrakott assisted Benavidez and scored again down the stretch of the opening frame.
In the second, Mathrakott delivered back-to-back goals from beyond the five-meter mark, extending the Troubie lead to 9-5. Then after Sullivan completed her hat trick with 47 ticks before halftime, Mathrakott assisted Stimson yet again at 0:31. The only Troubie goal in the first half that did not include Mathrakott came a minute into the second quarter: Brock set up Stimson for their team's sixth score.
Brock led St. Francis offensively after the break, although not with out seven more tallies from the Stimson-Mathrakott tandem. Despite her right-handedness, she hit two from the 4-5 side early in the third, converted a 6-on-5 chance after Piper Brostrom drew an exclusion with 2:05 left in the fourth, then finished a pair of counterattacks in the last 1:20 of the game to put St. Francis above the 20-goal plateau.
St. Francis goalie Sophia Santsche-Chavez also enjoyed her share of heroics, finishing with 15 saves against the seven goals. Three of those stops came in rapid succession midway through the second, when Bella Vista remained close behind at 6-4. One such save in that run came against a 6-on-5 chance at close range, while another saw her lunging to her left to halt a five-meter penalty attempt. Oddly, these came while St. Francis defended the west goal of the BV pool, where Santsche-Chavez did not have the benefit of the shallow water.
The 21 goals also marked the highest total since SF beat Franklin, 29-2, during the 2019 season. Even that game did not feature a player with seven or more goals, as the scoring was distributed among 13 players – including a then-freshman Mathrakott.
The Troubies' JV win did not feature the prodigious numbers of the varsity nightcap, but it did have a double hat trick: junior Havana Sperber scored six of the team's eight goals. Goalkeeper Holland Sperber had five saves, three steals, plus an assist to her older sister.
Frances Wells and Addison Hutchcraft accounted for the two remaining goals. Wells beat a tough angle at the 4:59 mark in the third, part of a 3-0 run that broke open the narrow 3-2 halftime edge. Hutchcraft scored in the opening minute of the fourth quarter, collecting an outlet pass from Havana Sperber on a counterattack.
Mary Margaret Ferrara assisted two of the three goals in the Troubies' outburst to start the third quarter.
St. Francis varsity returns to action on Friday for the two-day Woodcreek Invitational. Pairings are not yet available, but the Troubies are expected to be pooled with Clovis North, Los Gatos and Lodi. The JV team returns to action on Tuesday as part of the "Holy Water" rivalry game against Christian Brothers, held at Sacramento City College's Hoos Pool.
