Aragon girls earn big polo win over Mercy

It’s important to win the Ocean Division title because it means an automatic berth into the Central Coast Section playoffs.

“[We’ve] been working hard all season,” said Aragon coach Roxanne Tursi. “When they play together as a team, they’re hard to beat.”

Aragon (7-1 PAL Ocean) had been a Bay Division stalwart until being moved into the Ocean Division this season. Tursi said she believes the Dons have played this season with a chip on their collective shoulders and are in line not only to earn a CCS berth, but a promotion back to the Bay next season.

It was Mercy (5-2), however, that was looking to take control of the division by scoring a pair of quick goals on its first two shots of the match. Maddy Gomes fired home a shot from the hole set just over a minute into the match. Forty seconds later, the Crusaders took a 2-0 lead when Nina Moutoux received a pass on the wing near midpool and drove all the way to the cage without a defender on her and buried her shot.

It took a while for Aragon to find its range but, once the Dons did, they were deadly. When Tessa Draper scored off an assist from Monika Kepa with 4:33 to play in the first period, it jump-started a run that saw the Dons score eight unanswered goals.

“A game like this helps our girls be aware that defense is just as important as offense,” said Mercy coach Rocio Medina.

Thirty seconds after the first of Draper’s four goals, the Dons were awarded a man-advantage and tied the score when Kepa converted a pass from Rachel Downall for a power-play goal with 3:57 to left in the opening period. The Dons took the lead for good with 1:30 left in the first period when Draper scored on a 5-meter penalty shot for a 3-2 advantage.

In the second period, Aragon blitzed the Crusaders, scoring on their first five shots of the quarter. Olivia Tobin gave the Dons a 4-2 lead when she scored following a Mercy turnover at midpool. She found the back of the cage again when she drove toward the goal and Downall delivered a perfect pass right into Tobin’s path, who then floated home a shot with a defender draped on her for a 5-2 lead.

It was 6-2 when Draper scored her third goal of the first half off an assist from Tobin with 5:04 left before halftime. Tobin then scored her third goal of the period off an assist from Angela Bonanni for 7-2 Aragon lead. Draper rounded out the first-half scoring for the Dons with another power-play goal with under a minute remaining.

The Crusaders, however, did not pack it in. A Gomes power-play goal with 34 seconds left in the second period gave Mercy some momentum going into the second half.

In the third period, Mercy got back into the match by outscoring Aragon 3-1 and closing its deficit to 9-6.

“We started to relax and got comfortable,” Tursi said.

Vanessa Kibblewhite got the Mercy rally started with a goal of an assist from Grace Casdo, but Aragon answered with a goal from Downall on a power play.

Kibblewhite found the back of the cage again when her shot slipped through the hands of the Aragon goaltender and the Crusaders trailed by just three when Gomes scored the third of her four goals from the set.

When Gomes scored from the point on a power play early in the final period, the Crusaders were down just two, 9-7.

“When they get on a roll, they get on a roll,” Medina said of her team.

The Dons, however, responded and held the Crusaders at bay the rest of the way. Olivia Cosca gave Aragon some breathing room when she scored off an assist from Draper. Tobin then scored her fourth goal of the match off an assist from Kepa and Cosca rounded out the scoring when she walked in from the wing and put a shot away to put the Dons up 12-7.