Aragon boys' water polo team punches ticket to Central Coast Section playoffs

But all it did was guarantee the Dons one more game with Ocean Division champion Sequoia in the Peninsula Athletic League’s play-in game to determine the league’s final automatic berth into the Central Coast Section tournament.

“The last two weeks it’s been, ‘This could be our last game. This could be our last game,’” said Aragon head coach Carly DeMarchena.

It was the second season in a row Aragon found itself playing for its CCS life, but unlike last season’s shaky 9-6 win over Terra Nova, this time Aragon took the lead at the end of the first period and extended it from there, on its way to an 11-3 win over the Ravens, which secured the Dons’ spot in the CCS playoffs.

“Last [year] was more stressful,” said Aragon attacker Xavier McKenzie. “But it’s always butterflies in the stomach.”

Aragon and Sequoia met during a tournament game during the regular season, with Aragon securing a 13-8 win. The first period of Tuesday’s matchup looked like it was destined for another high-scoring meeting as the teams combined for seven goals.

But when McKenzie converted a 5-meter penalty shot, it gave the Dons a 4-3 lead with 22 seconds left in the first period, a lead they would never relinquish.

In fact, Aragon didn’t let Sequoia again, which went the final 21 minutes, 34 seconds of game play without a goal.

“They did a good job of protecting the middle of the cage,” said Sequoia’s first-year head coach Eric Bittner, a 2010 Sequoia graduate.

“They started to play (with) more help (in the set) and our guys didn’t know what to do.”

While Aragon did a good job shutting down the Sequoia offense, the Ravens struggled to contain the Dons, especially McKenzie. One of 10 seniors on the Aragon roster, McKenzie did it on both ends of the pool. On offense, he led the Dons with four goals and three assists. Defensively, he came up with seven steals and a block.

“He has been all over the place,” said DeMarchena.

The match started at a torrid pace, with Sequoia breaking the seal on the scoreboard when Chris McDonald stole the ball in front of the goal and fed Jack Lanham who buried his shot for a 1-0 lead less than a minute into the match.

McKenzie answered with a power move on the left wing, getting around his defender and beating the goalkeeper short side to tie it at 1.

Lanham came back with his second goal, but that was answered by Aragon’s Olin Gawel in the hole set.

The Dons took their first lead of the match on a Ryan Vattuone strike, but Lanham completed his first-period hat trick with 34 seconds left to tie the match at 3, before McKenzie’s penalty shot put the Dons ahead for good.

The defenses took over in the second and third periods, but Aragon managed a pair of late goals in the second from Vattuone and McKenzie to take a 6-3 lead at halftime.

Aragon scored the only goal of the third period, with Ethan Xie firing home a shot off a McKenzie assist.

In the fourth period, Sequoia simply couldn’t keep up with the Dons. The Ravens managed just two shots on goal in the final period, while Aragon scored four goals on eight shots. Xie added two more to finish with a hat trick of his own. McKenzie scored two twice and the Dons capped the scoring when goaltender Noah Dulac sent a length-of-the-pool shot toward an empty Sequoia goal, that landed short of the goal line before floating over and in for the final goal of the match.

“Last week was extremely stressful,” McKenzie said of the Woodside-M-A matches.

“That M-A game, we were very high energy,” McKenzie continues. “I think that energy carried over to this game.”

Girls’ play-in game

Woodside 12, Terra Nova 2

After a tight first period, the Wildcats settled down and pulled away from the Ocean Division champion Tigers in the PAL CCS play-in game in Woodside Tuesday.

Woodside managed only one goal in the opening period and head coach Cara Skourtis said she had to settle her team down at the quarter break.

“We didn’t score on our first possession and I think everyone said, ‘Oh no! I think we’re in trouble,’” Skourtis said. “We got to the end of the period and we had a little chat about staying calm and trusting our defense and letting the offense hum.”

The pep talk worked as the Wildcats went on to score 11 more goals the rest of the way. The offense was led by Annika Janzen and Edana Huang, who both netted a hat trick. Huang was also a menace on defense, coming up with seven steals.

When Terra Nova did manage to get a shot on goal, more often than not, Woodside goaltender Sophie Hunter was there to make the save as she finished with 13 saves.

It’s the second year in a row Woodside has prevailed in the PAL play-in match, beating Half Moon Bay in 2021.

Terra Nova’s goals were scored by Ayva Mould and Malia Smith.