Coyotes endure bad day in playoff loss

The last time the Madera Coyotes girls water polo team took the pool with the Sanger Apaches, the Coyotes came away with a victory to help them claim a share of the County/Metro Athletic Conference.

However, the ninth-seeded Apaches scored seven goals in the third period and 10 in the second half for a 14-5 victory over No. 8 Madera on Tuesday at the McAlister Aquatics Complex in the first round of the Div. I playoffs.

“What could go wrong went wrong for us,” head coach Erik Baymiller said. “I told my girls if we lost we were lazy about moving, I would be mad. We had 15 opportunities that we should have scored. We had two penalty shots that didn’t go in.”

Tara Goertzel led the Coyotes with two goals. Emily Lopez-Ibarra, Lola Gill and Devina Cazador each scored a goal.

“Finishing our opportunities and losing our opportunities because of our bad passes killed us,” Baymiller said. “They took a step back. Sanger was in our heads a little bit. That’s the nature of the game, a little bit. It’s tough playing a team four times.”

Last week, in a win over San Joaquin Memorial-Fresno, Madera’s Bailey Hansen scored a game-high seven goals. However, she was shut out against the Apaches.

“They came out and shut down our shooters,” Baymiller said. “When we played them last, our top four goal scorers had about 50 shots. Today, they had about 12-15. They shut our shooting percentage down.”

Sanger scored the first goal of the game with 4:06 left in the first period.

However, the Coyotes came back 13 seconds later with the tying shot. Goertzen, from the outside, shot into the right corner to send the teams into the second period tied at one.

Hansen drew a five-meter penalty shot, but Ibarra-Lopez’s shot went off the post 39 seconds into the second.

Sanger took the lead for good with a goal about two minutes into the second period. The Apaches added another goal 34 seconds later for a 3-1 lead. With a man-advantage, the Apaches scored another goal for a 4-1 lead into the half.

Sanger scored a pair of goals within the first two minutes for a 6-1 lead.

Madera cut the lead with a goal with 5:05 left in the third period. Lopez-Ibarra got the ball in front and, with a defender on her, shot high into the cage for the goal.

Sanger answered the goal with one of its own 24 seconds later on a penalty shot.

Seventeen seconds after Sanger’s goal, Madera added a goal. Off a foul, Gill hit from the outside to cut the lead to four with 4:24 left in the period.

Sanger closed the third period with four goals in the final 2:45 for an 11-3 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Both teams couldn’t get on the scoreboard in the first five minutes of the fourth until Sanger added to its lead.

With 1:33 left in the match, Goertzen stole the ball from Sanger and took it to the front of the goalie cage. She shot inside the near post for the goal.

Madera had a chance at another goal but a five-meter penalty shot by Lopez-Ibarra hit off the goalpost.

Sanger added a goal with 55 seconds left in the match.

Madera scored its final goal with 39 seconds left. Cazador got the ball on the right and shot inside the far post for the goal.

Sanger closed out the scoring with a goal with 16 seconds left for the 14-5 final.