Merced, El Capitan boys and girls water polo teams advance in section playoffs.
The El Capitan High girls water polo team raced out to a big lead early against No. 13 seed Kimball and cruised to a 23-4 victory in the first round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II playoffs on Monday night.
The No. 4 seeded Gauchos (21-7) will host No. 5 Del Oro on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Top-seeded Merced had a first-round bye and will host No. 9 Sierra on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. The No. 15 seeded Buhach Colony lost to No. 2 St. Mary’s 22-2 to eliminate the Thunder.
Brooklyn Ramsey led the Gauchos with six goals, five assists and five steals. Peyton Adrian added six goals, two assists, four steals and even spent some time at goalie, recording two saves. Alex Martinez chipped in with four goals, three assists and four steals.
Boys Water Polo
Merced 20, Pacheco 1 – The top-seeded Bears extended their streak to 22 consecutive wins with a rout of the No. 16 Panthers in the first round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II playoffs on Tuesday night. Merced will host No. 9 Del Oro on Friday in the quarterfinals at 5:30 p.m. Del Oro defeated No. 8 Buhach Colony 12-7 in the first round.
The Bears were led by Eli Hamm’s four goals, six assists and four steals. Hunter Gossett added three goals and Reid McCall recorded six assists. Twelve different players scored goals for Merced, which improved to 27-2 on the season.
El Capitan 10, Pitman 4 – Joseph Rodriguez scored four goals to go along with two assists and three steals to lead the No. 5 Gauchos to a victory over No. 12 Pride in the first round of the Division II playoffs. Matthew Brown, Colby Schanze and Liam Sanchez all added two goals for El Capitan (19-9), which heads to No. 4 Bella Vista on Friday for a quarterfinal matchup.
Brown and Luke Parker both recorded three assists for the Gauchos and goalie Jack Nutcher racked up 10 saves. In other Division II action involving MUHSD teams, No. 10 Atwater fell to No. 7 Whitney 10-4.
Sonora 22, Livingston 17 – The Wildcats’ Justus Roberts poured in 10 goals to lead No. 7 Sonora past the No. 10 Wolves in the first round of the Division III playoffs. Erik Arnett added six goals and 10 assists for the Wildcats.
Livingston was led by Kelvyn Edwards, who scored 10 goals. Aydan Ramirez and Alejandro Gonzalez both added two goals and three assists. The Wolves finished the season with a 17-4 record. It was a season that saw Livingston win its second Western Athletic Conference championship in the program’s history.
Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.