APTOS — Aptos High’s girls water polo team will enjoy the program’s first trip to the CIF Northern California Regional playoffs a little longer.
Junior Adelaide Friedley saw to that with three second-half goals, as the No. 2 seeded Mariners defeated No. 7 Marin Catholic 7-4 in a Division III quarterfinals on Tuesday.
“This is a big first for our team. This is uncharted water for the Mariners, that’s for sure,” said Aptos coach Cody Gilbert, whose team defeated Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League rival Santa Cruz 7-4 for the Central Coast Section D-II title on Saturday.
With its latest win, Aptos (18-10 overall) will remain at home for its semifinal match against Rio Americano. The No. 3 Raiders defeated fellow Sacramento school Christian Brothers 9-1 on Tuesday.
And, save for a slight hiccup in the final 27 seconds of the first half, which allowed the North Coast Section D-II champs to tie the score at 3 at the break, the Mariners did it with their defense.
“My girls definitely won that game playing really good defense,” Gilbert said. “Our shots were a little bit off tonight, but I tell the girls, ‘There can be bad offensive days and bad shooting days, but there’s no such thing as a bad defense day. It’s a bad effort day.’ ”
Aptos led 3-0 after the first quarter on two goals by Bellame Breen and one by Friedley before the Wildcats broke the shutout on a goal by senior Anya Jaroszewski with 5:22 to go before halftime.
Emma Slaught made it 3-2 on a penalty shot with 27 second left and tied it on an empty-net goal with a second left after Aptos goaltender Mary Suarez-Abraham got caught betwixt and between when she came up to help the Mariners offensively.
“We stopped moving as much and it really starts to show when we stop driving because we’re definitely a drive offense. When we get tired we start to lose sight of that,” said Friedley, who ended the game with four goals. “I’m proud of Mary because she’s been really sick all week.”
Slaught’s second goal was the last for Marin Catholic until Jaroszewski scored with 4:26 left in the game.
“We’re definitely a second-half team. We have endurance,” Friedley said. “We usually start the first half slow, but I think we have endurance. We always finish games.”
Friedley broke the tie with a shot on a drive from the right side with 6:09 left in the third quarter and added two more goals in the fourth quarter as the Mariners widened their lead.
“We definitely won a lot of the sprints tonight and, at the end, we pushed our counterattack, which helped us get a more comfortable lead. But I’m proud of them,” Gilbert said. “All season long our focus has been on defense. That’s what’s making us win.”
Adrianna Santillano added the Mariners’ final goal with 2:55 remaining.
“This was one of the first games all season where my girls drew more ejections than they got ejected. We had a lot of 6-on-5s. That was very effective for us tonight,” Gilbert said.
Two of the Mariners’ goals in the first quarter came with a player advantage.
“I wish we would have had a higher percentage scoring on those, a higher conversion rate, but just the fact that we didn’t get ejected as much as the other team did was big for us,” Gilbert added.
Marin Catholic, which upset James Logan to win its first North Coast Section D-II title on Saturday, ends the season with a 17-10 record.
“I think we played Marin Catholic polo for all four quarters and I’m proud of my girls,” said Wildcats coach Sophie Doyle. “They rallied. We certainly weren’t getting any calls on offense. They drew nine exclusions and we had one.”
Arroyo Grande 11, Soquel 7
ARROYO GRANDE — The No. 6 Knights gave up five goals in the second quarter and trailed 7-0 at the half in the CIF NorCal Regional D-I quarterfinals on Tuesday.
The Knights, the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League champion and Central Coast Section Open Division runner-up, finishes its season at 22-8 overall.
Junior Natalie Whitfield had four goals, two assists, and four steals to lead the No. 3 Eagles (29-5), the Central Section D-I champion.
San Diego State University committed senior Ané Smith had three goals for the Eagles. Freshman Allison Benson scored twice, and seniors Tessa Pettit, who will compete for Villanova next season, and Sophie McGehee each scored a goal.
Junior goalie Bay Burnett made eight saves for Arroyo Grande.
The Eagles play at No. 2 Carondelet (22-5) in the semifinals in Concord on Thursday at 5 p.m.
Sentinel Sports Editor Jim Seimas contributed to this report.
IF YOU GO
NorCal Regional D-III semifinals
Rio Americano at Aptos
When: Thursday, 5 p.m.