Santa Barbara Beats Tired Santa Margarita

Playing short-handed, Santa Margarita reached the final of the Southern California Championships girls’ water polo tournament.

“But I think the tank is just about empty,” Santa Margarita Coach Scott Taylor said before the final.

The Eagles, still without standout Jamie Kroeze, who is nursing a shoulder injury, played defending champion Santa Barbara tough for a half before falling, 6-2, in the final Saturday at Heritage Park in Irvine.

Thalia Munro, who recently played on the U.S. women’s national B team, had two goals and Lauren Boreta also scored twice for Santa Barbara (22-1), whose only loss was to El Toro in the Villa Park tournament early this season.

Santa Barbara, the No. 1-ranked team in Southern Section Division II, in which it is the defending champion, never trailed. Santa Margarita (16-6) did pull even twice in the second quarter, at 1-1 and 2-2, on goals by Kristina Kunkel and Erika Figge.

But the Dons pulled away steadily, shutting out the Eagles in the second half.

In the semifinals, Figge and Kunkel each scored twice to help Santa Margarita, ranked ninth in the county, defeat third-ranked Esperanza, 6-4.

“It was a good weekend,” Taylor said. “We played hard, but we just came up a little short.”

In the third-place game:

No. 3 Esperanza 6, No. 6 Marina 5 (sudden death)--Theresa Guidi’s second goal was the game-winner with eight seconds remaining in the second three-minute sudden-death overtime period for Esperanza (21-4).

In the consolation final:

No. 7 El Toro 10, No. 10 Rosary 7--Erica Nicholson and Stephenie Hand each scored three goals for El Toro (15-9). Natalie Golda led Rosary with three goals.

In the fifth-place game:

Irvine 7, Long Beach Wilson 3--Kristi Riedel scored two goals for the Vaqueros (18-3), who entered the week ranked No. 1 in Division I. Wilson (16-6) is ranked second.

In the ninth-place game:

No. 8 Capistrano Valley 4, No. 2 Villa Park 3--Kristyn Pulver gave Villa Park (18-6) a 3-2 lead with two minutes remaining, but Amber Stachowski scored her second goal with 1:05 remaining and the winner with 26 seconds remaining for Capistrano Valley (14-7), which went 4-1 in the tournament.