Santa Margarita Holds Off Esperanza
Santa Margarita, the fifth-ranked girls’ water polo team in Orange County, made up for a sluggish offense with an aggressive defense to defeat ninth-ranked Esperanza, 7-3, in a nonleague game Friday at Esperanza High.
Erika Figge had three goals and six steals to lead a strong defensive effort for Santa Margarita (5-3), which held Esperanza’s leading scorer, Jessica Conner, scoreless.
The Aztecs (5-5) didn’t score until 19 seconds into the third quarter, after the Eagles had taken control with a 4-0 halftime lead.
Santa Margarita’s Kristina Kunkel--who along with Figge played for the U.S. youth national team in a tournament in Montreal last week--had three goals and three assists after missing the Eagles’ four games in the Newport Harbor-Corona del Mar tournament.
“This is only the fourth game this season that we’ve had everybody,” Santa Margarita Coach Scott Taylor said. “We played well defensively but we struggled offensively.”
Kunkel even missed a four-meter penalty shot, sending it off the crossbar with 5 minutes 5 seconds remaining and the Eagles leading, 6-2.
“Yeah, they could have really killed us,” Esperanza Coach Galen Diaz said. “But we gave up only seven goals and gave ourselves a chance to win. We drew four ejections too, but we didn’t score on any of our six-on-fives.
“You score on two or three of those and it’s a lot closer, but give Santa Margarita credit. We just couldn’t get it going against them today.”
In the quarterfinals of the Western tournament:
Los Alamitos 9, Sonora 2--Susie Lewis scored three goals and Drue Wawrzynski added two for the Griffins (7-5). Julia Foley and Sam Arnold scored for Sonora (9-7).
Santa Ana Valley 5, Cypress 4--Nancy Arias scored three goals and Anna Avila had two for the Falcons (11-3), who play Los Alamitos this morning at 9:40 at Kennedy High School. Alyssa Boberg scored two goals for Cypress (5-9).
In nonleague games:
No. 3 Newport Harbor 6, No. 10 El Toro 3--Newport Harbor outscored the Chargers, 4-1, in the second half to win. Katherine Belden and Annie Wight had two goals each to lead the Sailors (9-1).
Long Beach Wilson 12, Irvine 11--Nicole Lorrimer scored five goals for visiting Irvine (7-3), the fourth-ranked team in Orange County.