GRANITE BAY, Calif. – Junior Miranda Ferguson scored four goals while junior Sophia Santsche-Chavez posted 11 saves and four steals, but St. Francis ultimately fell to Granite Bay by a 15-6 final in the varsity end of a non-league girls' water polo doubleheader Monday night.
The Troubadours slip to 7-5 for the year. The Grizzlies, ranked No. 1 in the Sac-Joaquin Section by MaxPreps, improves to 11-2 overall.
Ferguson had all four of her goals after the halftime break. Her first and fourth goals came on fadeaway shots at set, her hat trick goal came on a pass from Havana Sperber with 1:39 left in the game, while her second was a coast-to-cast drive to open the final period. Ferguson also assisted Piper Brostrom's goal, which drew first blood in the contest at 5:03 in the first. Senior Ashlyn Brock netted the sixth SF goal later in the first, glancing a shot off the goalkeeper's fingers and into the cage with 2:10 on the game clock.
Brock's goal gave the Troubies a brief 2-1 lead, but Audrey Quilala's steal at two meters set up a counterattack on the next possession, evening the game at 2-2. That goal also started what grew into a 5-0 run by halftime, giving GB a 6-2 lead at the break. In all, the Grizzlies enjoyed a 10-1 run in the second and third quarters combined.
The St. Francis junior varsity also dropped its matchup with GB, briefly holding a 4-3 lead before coming up empty in the fourth en route to an 8-4 setback. Charlotte Krause scored two of the four Troubie goals, with Sara Ellis and Frannie Wells splitting the other two. Freshman Jayel Miller notched nine saves, including two against GB counter?attacks.
SF fell into an early 2-0 hole before Savannah Hamilton assisted Krause to put the Troubies on the board at the 1:38 mark in the first. Ellis nearly equalized at the end of the opening stanza, only to have her shot carom off the crossbar. The Troubies manage to stay within striking range in the second despite several Grizzly chances: a two-meter shot that Miller halted, a five-meter penalty shot that went wide of the cage, and a power-play shot by Alexa Rincon Gallardo at the close of the first half.
Rincon Gallardo earned redemption by scoring 13 seconds after the third-quarter sprint, boosting GB to a 3-2 lead. Then junior Erin Maeng assisted Krause on a 6-on-5 conversion at 3:24 and a Wells' two-meter goal with 2:39 left, boosting the Troubies to a 4-3 lead. However, Grizzly sophomore Sarah Baxter answered with a 4-4 equalizer after the next restart, one of two goals in a 5-0 game-ending run through the fourth.
Monday's game was the first action for the SF jayvees since a road win at Woodcreek on September 19. They move to 3-7 for the season.
Both Troubie varsity and JV teams return to action on Thursday for the much-awaited "Holy Water" rivalry game against Christian Brothers. The JV-first doubleheader begins at 5 p.m. at Sacramento City College's Hoos Pool.
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