Coyotes battle tough in loss to Sanger
Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune
Madera’s Bailey Hansen rises up for a shot against the Sanger Apaches on Tuesday. She scored two of Madera’s four goals in a loss.
Madera Coyotes girls water polo coach Erik Baymiller found out he lost the use of one of his top players to a concussion in a week they were to face two Div. I teams, but his team battled in a 10-4 loss to the Sanger Apaches on Tuesday in McAlister Pool.
Baymiller lost Emily Goertzen to a concussion for the week when they faced Sanger on Tuesday and Bullard-Fresno on Thursday.
Goertzen’s absence showed against the Apaches who took the ball away at midpool, which set up counterattacks against Madera goalie Alexis Gibbs.
“Sanger is really good,” Baymiller said. “We came out with a decent first quarter. We just mentally shut off. We went three octaves lower than we usually are.”
The Coyotes received two goals from Bailey Hansen and goals from Madi McNeil and Selynna Rosales, but weren’t able to get a lot of shots off against Sanger.
“Were just super young so they make these super quick rash decisions,” Baymiller said. “Whereas the older girls think about it. That’s the challenge. We have a young team so we have to get it going. I got through telling them they are JV-level players in a varsity body. We have to use our time as much as possible to bring that up. This summer, not a lot of people showed up. We’re just working on our offense right now, halfway through the season.”
Madera had a chance at an early goal just 21 seconds into the match, but Madi McNeil’s shot went off the post. Sanger came back and scored into the left corner for the first goal of the game.
The Apaches scored two minutes later, but Madera came back. Hansen, with man advantage, got the ball in the center and bounced a goal into the left corner to cut the lead to one.
However, Sanger scored a goal with 15 seconds left in the first for a 3-1 lead.
The Apaches scored three goals in the first six minutes of the second quarter for a 6-1 lead.
Off a pass from Lola Gill, Hansen scored with less than a second on the clock for a 6-2 Sanger lead at the half.
The Apaches added two goals in the third period, but Madera couldn’t convert on back-to-back man-advantage situations.
Rosales got the ball on the left side and shot inside the left post during a man advantage to score less than a minute into the fourth period.
After a Sanger goal, Madera had the chances to score. The Coyotes shot wide left on a possession. They had the ball stolen with a two-man advantage and shot off the post on another possession.
Sanger scored its last goal with 1:35 left in the match. With 11 seconds left, McNeil shot from the left side into the left corner for the 10-4 final.
