No. 5 Rosary Holds Off No. 7 El Toro

Rosary, the fifth-ranked girls’ water polo team in Orange County, started fast and then held off seventh-ranked El Toro, 10-5, in a second-round game at the Irvine Southern California Championships Thursday at El Toro High.

Julie Henn scored four goals, Julia Wald scored three and Natalie Golda added two for Rosary (18-4), which will play Long Beach Wilson in today’s quarterfinals at 6 p.m. at El Toro.

Kristen Miller scored her second goal on a backhander to help pull El Toro (13-7) get within 7-5 with 4 minutes 21 seconds remaining. But the Chargers only took three more shots after Miller’s goal, and Golda, Henn and Laura Lamb scored for Rosary to put the game out of reach.

“I think almost all of our goals came from two-meters,” Rosary Coach Todd Sprague said. “El Toro tried to take that away from us defensively, but I was happy because our girls didn’t back down and went after it.”

The Royals took control, scoring three goals in a 1 1/2-minute span in the first quarter.

After El Toro pulled even, 1-1, on Miller’s first goal with 3:27 remaining in the first quarter, Rosary took the lead when Golda scored from two meters off a pass from Kelly McNeley with 3:17 remaining in the quarter.

Then Wald scored consecutive goals from two meters off passes from Henn to make it 4-1 with 1:46 remaining in the first quarter, and El Toro would only get as close as two goals in the fourth quarter.