SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Senior goalkeeper Sophia Santsche-Chavez posted 13 saves and assisted Piper Brostrom on both of her team-best two goals, but No. 3-seeded St. Francis ultimately fell in a 7-5 upset to No. 6 Del Oro a Sac-Joaquin Section Division II girls' water polo championship quarterfinal game at American River College Thursday.
The Troubadours finish their season with a 17-10 record.
Santsche-Chavez logged nine of her 13 stops by the 3-3 halftime break. Joining Brostrom in the scoring column were freshman Emma Dietrich, senior Miranda Ferguson and senior Erin Maeng.
Brostrom also drew an exclusion and a five-meter penalty, although fouls proved pivotal in the contest: St. Francis was charged with 10 kickouts and a penalty, with Ferguson and senior Addison Hutchcraft fouling out relatively early in the game. Meanwhile, the Golden Eagles only faced one exclusion and one five-meter – both in the final minute when they already held a 7-4 lead.
The Troubies had their chances in the first quarter but finished 0-for-6 shooting with four turnovers, including one ceding of possession as the shot clock wound down. Santsche-Chavez did her part to offset this, halting four saves. However, Skye Perry converted an assist from Maddie Whitely on DO's second of 10 total 6-on-5 opportunities. Whitely then doubled DO's lead to 2-0 after the opening sprint of the second quarter.
St. Francis quickly righted its ship, with Ferguson's steal setting up a long counterattack goal for Dietrich with 5:56 left in the second. Ferguson later scored the equalizer on a fall-away goal from set, then Brostrom finished another transition goal for the go-ahead score at the 3:23 mark. Santsche-Chavez had the long outlet for the assist, although credit goes to the SF coaching staff: with DO senior Simone Shepard missing side, the counter ball quickly made its way to the senior goalie, who delivered a long pass straight to Brostrom right up the middle of the course.
The remainder of the second quarter became a battle of the two goalkeepers. Golden Eagle senior Kate Luzuriaga blocked shots from Brostrom and Frannie Wells, and forced Ferguson to a ball-under call in the final seconds before the break. Meanwhile Santsche-Chavez posted four more saves, including one against Luzuriaga with an eighth of a second left. Yet one of those blocks indirectly led to DO's tying the game. Santsche-Chavez swatted Whitley on a power-play attempt, but the Eagle junior collected the rebound and delivered a put-back score with 47 ticks on the game clock.
Unfortunately for St. Francis, the shooting woes from the first quarter returned in the third with another 0-for-6 frame. During that span, DO scored twice: Shepard converted a penalty shot with 2:32 remaining, then scored from set at 1:05 to extend the Eagle lead to 5-3.
Maeng ended the scoreless stretch in the same manner of her five previous goals: a long lob from the four spot, cutting the deficit to 5-4 with 5:41 still left to play. However, Shepard extended DO's advantage back to two goals after the next restart, winning a battle at two meters. Then Elise Brubaker bumped that lead to three with her 6-on-5 conversion with 4:18 left.
The Troubies tacked on their fifth goals in nearly identical fashion to the go-ahead goal back in the second: a long Santsche-Chavez outlet pass to Brostrom after Brostrom had drawn a kickout in transition. SF had another chance to score with 10 seconds left on a five-meter foul, but the penalty shot sailed high. This put the ball in the hands of Luzuriaga to kill the final seconds and complete the upset for the Golden Eagles.
Thursday's playoff game marked the third low-scoring matchup between SF and DO in 2024: the Troubies beat the Golden Eagles by a 6-2 final on September 25, then came away with a 7-6 overtime thriller at home on October 21.
Ferguson finished her career as the team's leading scorer with 61 goals and 77 total points, slightly ahead of Abigail Benavidez (56-15-71). Brostrom ranked third on the team with 38 goals and 16 assists, with Santsche-Chavez and Hutchcraft sharing the assists lead with 26. Furthermore, Santsche-Chavez ended her career with 305 saves against 180 goals in 2024, contributing toward career totals of 782 saves with 499 goals allowed.
Ferguson and Benavidez also broke the century mark in career goals: Benavidez with 115 varsity goals in two seasons, Ferguson with 112 scores across four years. Furthermore, Ferguson's 61 is the most by a Troubie since future San Diego State Aztec Kendall Houck netted 68 in 2019, although Ava Stimson did have 60 in just 19 games two seasons ago. Brostrom ended her career with totals of 83 goals, 59 assists and 99 steals in 76 varsity games.
