Villa Park Defense Too Tough for Dana Hills to Handle

Villa Park scored six times in the first quarter and used a menacing defense to shut down Dana Hills, 16-6, in a nonleague girls’ water polo game Tuesday at Villa Park High.

Kristyn Pulver scored a season-high eight goals for the Spartans (12-0), ranked No. 2 in the Orange County coaches poll, and Shannon Buckner added four.

Dana Tucker had three goals for Dana Hills (6-3), but the Dolphins’ leading scorer did not have a goal until the last minute of the game.

The Spartan defense, led by two-meter defender Danee French, had 19 steals and created 22 turnovers. The Spartans did not give up a goal until Annie Babcock blooped in a 30-foot shot with 2:21 left in the first half. Villa Park outshot the Dolphins, 37-16.

“Our entire team defense played great,” Villa Park Coach John Carcich said. “We played well in the field and at the two-meter.”

On the other end of the pool, Pulver dominated. She struck early--scoring twice in the first 1:30--and was unstoppable any time she got the ball near the Dana Hills net.

Her back-to-back fast break goals in the final two minutes of the first quarter gave the Spartans a 5-0 lead. She scored the final Villa Park goal after a fake spin move with a Dana Hills defender draped on her back with 18 seconds to play.

Pulver, Villa Park’s leading scorer this season, sat out most of the second half, but returned late in the game to work on a new defensive scheme that Carcich recently implemented.

Dana Hills goalkeeper Torey Wolford, who had 11 saves, made a length-of-the-pool shot at the halftime buzzer to pull the Dolphins to within eight, at 10-2, but Villa Park scored three times in the third quarter to quell any ideas of a comeback.