SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Junior Piper Brostrom scored two goals and posted a team-best five steals while junior goalkeeper Sophia Santsche-Chavez blocked 14 shots on goal as St. Francis held on against McClatchy, 6-5, in the varsity opener of Thursday's girls' prep water polo doubleheader at Jesuit High School.
The Troubadours, playing in their home opener, improve to 10-6 for the season.
Thursday's victory also served as Senior Night for St. Francis, which honored 2024 graduates-to-be Ashlyn Brock, Maren Foster, Reese Hughes, Havana Sperber and Lydia Vlahos prior to the game. Brock matched Brostrom's two-goal output while Havana Sperber and Miranda Ferguson each netted one.
The Troubies dominated the first half, holding a 5-1 lead at the break. The two teams clashed in a defensive struggle for the first six minutes of play until Brostrom notched a steal to stop a Lion 6-on-5 chance. She then fired an outlet pass to Brock, who finished the counterattack to break up the scoreless tie.
Then two minutes into the second quarter, it was a Ferguson steal that gave way to a Santsche-Chavez-to-Brostrom goal. Sperber made it three straight with her walk-up strike at the 2:53 mark in the second, then Brock extended the lead to 4-0 on another counterattack. Reese Hughes' steal in the backcourt allowed Ferguson and Brock to combine on the transition. CKM sophomore Charlotte Rattan hit a cross-cage shot to get her team on the board with 1:18 left, only for Addison Hutchcraft to assist Ferguson on another goal after the next restart.
However, SF suffered a tough break to start the second half when Brock was charged for a third exclusion immediately following the opening sprint. The Troubies shot just 0-for-5 in the third quarter, but Santsche-Chavez kept the Lions at an arm's distance with her seven saves against the one goal in the frame. Then Brostrom was called for an exclusion foul with a second remaining in the third quarter. The Lions held the ball, allowing the power play to possibly continue into the fourth.
With Brock and Brostrom no longer available, St. Francis conceded the fourth-quarter sprint and relied on its 5-on-6 to end the threat. Sure enough, Santsche-Chavez tallied two more saves against Rattan. Then Lion sophomore Leila Woodard spun and fired in a goal from one to trim the lead to 5-3. But Brostrom bumped the margin back to three goals when a shot caromed off the crossbar and found her wide open in the left flank. She scored the putback in what proved to be a pivotal goal.
McClatchy earned two goals from junior attacker Ella Hanson down the stretch of the fourth, with a "quick-quick" score on a power play bringing CKM to within a 6-5 margin. Rattan had a chance to equalize when she had a clear lane on a counterattack, only to get chased down by Hughes. Hanson later fired on goal, only to get halted by Santsche-Chavez. Finally, Santsche-Chavez was called for a ball under, sending Rattan to the five-meter stripe for a penalty shot and a chance to force overtime. Rattan's shot sailed just inches above Santsche-Chavez's fingers – and the crossbar itself – to keep the Lions off the board one more time. This allowed SF one final possession to kill the clock and preserve the win.
The Troubies' varsity win was followed by a wild 8-4 junior varsity loss, in which an already short-handed SF team ended up fouling out three players during the second half. This meant starting the third quarter with just five, dropping to four with 3:48 left in the fourth, then going 3-against-6 from the 2:15 mark on.
Sophomore Sara Ellis scored three straight goals in the final two minutes of the third frame, giving the Troubies a 4-3 lead. She hit a five-meter penalty with 1:55 to go, drew an offensive foul and finished the short counterattack 10 seconds later, then outraced two Lions to a rebounded shot before firing in the putback with five ticks remaining. Of course, that lead proved brief, as CKM scored four unanswered against the down-sized Troubie defense in the fourth.
Thursday's game was designated as Senior Day but it is not the home finale, as the Troubies will host Davis for the regular-season finale on October 25. In the meantime, the SF varsity heads to Modesto on Friday and Saturday for the 45th-annual Western States tournament at Johansen High. The jayvees will rematch with McClatchy to open the CKM JV Scramble on Saturday.
