SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Junior goalkeeper Sophia Santsche-Chavez posted 15 saves, including five in a two-minute span during the second quarter, but fourth-seeded St. Francis shot just 2-for-19 overall in an 8-2 loss to fifth-seeded Merced in a Sac-Joaquin Section Division II girls' water polo quarterfinal at American River College Thursday night.
The Troubadours end their season at 18-11. The Bears improve to 17-9 overall, and will face hometown rival El Capitan in the semifinal round.
Santsche-Chavez finishes her season with 356 saves against 194 goals for a masterful .647 average. She surrendered two goals in each of the four quarters in the contest, with one coming on a five-meter penalty, another on a field blocked shot, and two on Merced power plays.
St. Francis missed on its first eight shots of the game, with just one attempt – a Piper Brostrom attempt late in the first quarter – on goal. Oddly, the Troubies ended their scoring drought thanks to such a shot: Merced freshman Dorothy Drury field blocked Miranda Ferguson as a 6-on-5 chance expired, then Brostrom answered with a rebound and putback in front of the Bear cage with 5:05 in the second.
Another Merced ninth grader, Sarah Slocum, won a battle at two meters to push her team back to a 4-1 lead with 2:39 remaining for the first of her game-high three goals. From that point to the break, Santsche-Chavez did all she could to keep her team within striking range. She denied Charlotte Covert on a 6-on-5 conversion attempt with less than two minutes left, halted Slocum for back-to-back shots, then blocked an Elise Metcalf attempt at nearly point-blank range. Metcalf unloaded another shot at the halftime buzzer, but Santsche-Chavez came through with the save yet again.
Junior Abigail Benavidez hit the only other SF goal in the final minute of the third quarter. Addison Hutchcraft had nowhere to go at the four spot, so she found Benavidez at the top of the offense. The ODP Nationals veteran buried a shot with 49 ticks left, cutting the Bears' lead to 6-2.
Unfortunately for the Troubies, that was their last turn at altering the scoreboard. Brostrom had perhaps the best chance to find the back of the net when she advanced on the cage during a counterattack, but Merced goaltender Jasmine Fagan made the stop.
Benavidez closed out the season as St. Francis' leader in both goals (59) and steals (59). Brostom ended up as the assists leader with 34, three ahead of Santsche-Chavez. Thursday's playoff game also marked the career finale for seniors Havana Sperber, Ashlyn Brock, Reese Hughes, Lydia Vlahos and Maren Foster.
