Coyotes cruise into quarterfinals
Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune
Madera’s Maddie McNeil fends off two defenders to try to score one of her five goals in Wednesday’s Div. II playoff victory over the Sierra Chieftains.
The Madera Coyotes girls water polo showed off its No. 4 seed in the Div. II playoffs with a dominating victory over the 13th seeded Sierra-Tollhouse Chieftains in McAlister Pool.
The Coyotes scored eight goals in the first period and added seven more in the second to cruise to a 22-1 victory. Nine of the 10 players scored for the Coyotes. The only player that didn’t score was goalie Ashley Gibbs, who allowed just one goal and had an easy time in goal.
“That’s not how we usually start,” head coach Erik Baymiller said. “We usually struggle for our goals from the beginning and pick it up. We got it from the start, which was good. We have played some teams recently with good goalies so that’s helped us. We’ll see another if we play Reedley.”
Maddie McNeil led the Coyotes with five goals. Selynna Rosales and Emily Goertzen scored three each. Bailey Hansen, Lola Gill and Emily Lopez each scored two goals each. Ceaira Chavira, Tara Goertzen and Gabby Ruiz each added a goal.
“We got everyone in the flow,” Baymiller said. “We wanted to pick it up at halftime. We wanted to try to keep them as perfect as possible. Little giveaways were unacceptable. I can’t be too mad at an eight goal first period, but we still gave the ball away too much.”
The Coyotes continue in the quarterfinals, hosting No. 5 seeded Reedley today in the McAlister Swim Complex.
The Coyotes got the scoring started early, putting in two goals within the first two minutes of the game.
Emily Goertzen got the ball from Chavira and drove to the front of the goal and shot into the upper right corner for the first goal.
Off a pass from Goertzen, McNeil sent a goal into the left corner for a 2-0 lead.
Less than 30 seconds later, Chavira got the ball in the middle of the pool and sent a long pass to Goertzen, who shot inside the near post for her second goal of the game.
Goertzen sent a pass in front to Hansen, who was one-on-one with the goalie. She found the back of the net for a 4-0 lead less than halfway through the first period.
Seventeen seconds later, Hansen sent a pass up front to Gill. Gill went one-on-one with the goalie and scored inside the near post.
The Coyotes took 51 seconds to score their next goal. Ruiz sent a ball in front to McNeil in the hole set. McNeal turned and found the right corner.
Less than a minute later, Rosales sent a pass to the right for NcNeill. She sent a shot into the left corner of the goal right as the shot clock buzzer sounded for a 7-0 lead.
Twenty-nine seconds later, McNeil sent a pass up top to Ruiz. Ruiz then passed inside to Rosales, who turned and shot into the back of the net for an 8-1 lead with 1:41 left in the period.
Sierra got a ball in front and sent a shot past Gibbs for their only goal of the match with 1:27 left in the first period.
Just 31 seconds into the second period, the Coyotes earned an ejection. Tara Goertzen got the ball at the top and sent it to a wide open Rosales in the front, who scored for a 9-1 lead.
Twenty-one seconds later, the Coyotes found the back of the net, again. Off a pass from Emily Goertzen, Chavira found herself in front of the goalie wide open and hit the back of the net for a 10-1 lead.
Rosales scored in front with 4:47 left in the first half off crisp passing from Chavira to Ruiz to Rosales for the goal.
In the hole-set, McNeil battled with a defender and sent a shot past the goalie for a 12-1 lead. Hansen drew a five-meter shot and scored into the right side of the net for a 13-1 lead.
With two minutes left in the half, Lopez stole the ball in the middle of the pool and found Goertzen. She sent the ball across the goal to Gill, who touched the ball on goal. The shot was blocked, but Gill followed it and pushed the ball into the goal for a 14-1 lead.
Later, Rosales sent the ball in the middle to Tara Goertzen. She turned and sent a skip shot over the goalie’s shoulder for a goal and a 15-1 lead at the half.
The Coyotes started the second half scoring just 13 seconds into the third period. Lopez got the ball on the right side and sent the ball over the goalie for a 16-1 lead.
Lopez got a pass from Chavira in front of the goal and scored her second goal in less than a minute.
Just 22 seconds later, Rosales got the ball on the right and sent it into the middle for McNeil, who scored for an 18-1 lead.
From there, Baymiller told his team to work on the offense and moved the ball around the pool without taking a shot.
Late in the third period, McNeil got the ball in front and shot into the right corner for a goal with 2.6 seconds left and a 19-1 lead heading into the fourth period.
Emily Goertzen got the ball on the left, turned and shot inside the near post for a goal 22 seconds into the fourth period.
The Coyotes worked to get Ruiz, who was the only field player that hadn’t scored a goal, to get a shot on goal. She finally got an opportunity when Rosales got a steal in the middle of the pool. She sent the ball in front to a wide open Ruiz, who found the back of the net with just two-tenths of a second left in the match for the 21-1 victory.
