Santiago girls water polo rolls past Centennial, secures top seed for Big VIII tournament – Press Enterprise

CORONA — For 6 minutes Monday afternoon, the Santiago and Centennial girls water polo teams were equally tentative when they possessed the ball.

Santiago eventually snapped out of that rut, sped things up and cruised to a 15-4 win to secure the top seed for the Big VIII League carousel tournament.

HayleyJane Pence scored four of her six goals during the second period, as the Sharks (21-2 overall, 5-0 in league) turned a close match into a runaway.

“I think we started being more aggressive and playing our game,” Santiago coach Kenny Clements said about his team’s surge during the second period. “We came out with some nerves and you could see we were hesitating a little bit to play our way. We started attacking more and moving the ball around.”

The crosstown rivals combined for nine shots in the first 6 minutes of the match, but only a handful were on target and none found the back of the cage.

Santiago’s Olivia Re scored from the 2-meter spot with 59 seconds left in the first period to end the scoring drought. Centennial’s Jayda Perez answered back on the ensuing possession, also scoring from the set position. Santiago regained the lead when Emily Lewis scored with 2 seconds left on the clock.

Lewis earned a penalty shot on the opening possession of the second quarter, and Pence converted from the 5-meter spot. The Sharks scored on seven of their first eight possessions during that period, helping them taking a 9-2 lead at halftime. Pence and Riley Romero combined to score six of the goals.

“It has always been competitive with Centennial, so I feel we were a bit wary and just thinking too much about how this match would go,” Pence explained about the slow start. “We just weren’t attacking the way were normally do. Once we relaxed a little bit, we started playing harder and found a nice rhythm.”

Centennial (16-5, 4-1) had trouble keeping hold of the ball during that second period, as the Huskies turned the ball over on seven of their 11 possessions.

“We were playing in slow motion at times and everything was a second or two too slow,” Centennial coach Crystal Voss said. “It’s about recognizing those opportunities sooner than we are. We just need to get the passes into set quicker. We also need to drive more because those are chances we’re missing.”

Clements praised his team defensive effort, as multiple players defended the center position and limited Centennial’s scoring chances from 2 meters out.

Santiago held the Huskies scoreless for a span of 12 minutes and 17 seconds across the second, third and fourth periods and increased the lead to 12-2.

“Everyone here can defend, and sometimes we do it by committee,” Clements said. “I give them a lot of freedom to either defend 1-on-1 or look for help.”

Re scored goals during the third and fourth periods to complete her hat trick. Sofia Atondo and Romero each tallied two goals, two assists and four steals.

Perez scored two goals to lead Centennial, and Caroline Manley added four steals for the Huskies, who will be the No. 2 seed for the league tournament.