THE BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN (By Stepehn Lynch & Photo by Rod Thornburg) - When the scoreboard reached zero a jubilant Liberty team and its vocal group of supporters celebrated a historic victory.
The Patriots defeated the Monarchs 17-10 on Wednesday night to become the first girls water polo team in the KHSD to ever reach the D-III finals.
“We went in confident, but we’ve never made it this far,” Liberty coach Katerina Gardella said. “We didn’t know what to expect. We just went in ready, and it showed tonight. I’m very proud of the girls. We’re super ecstatic.”
Second-seeded Liberty rallied from an early 3-0 deficit to down No. 3 Exeter for the right to play in Saturday’s championship match at Fresno State. The Patriots will face top-seeded Tollhouse-Sierra in the championship tilt. The Chieftains edged Visalia-El Diamante, 7-6 in Wednesday’s other D-III semifinal.
“I’m very excited, this is the first time in history (that a KHSD team has gone this far in the D-III playoffs), Liberty senior Emma Trottier said. “In the past we haven’t made it past the first round of playoffs. But we’re making it all the way to the end this time and really excited how we play and how we come together as a team on Saturday.”
Laila Escarzaga had five goals to pace the Liberty scoring attack against Exeter, which came out strong and led 3-0 with 3:42 remaining in the first quarter. Jackie Mays chipped in 4 goals and Alexis Onaindia added 3 fourth quarter goals.
The match was tied before the Patriots completely dominated the fourth quarter, outscoring Exeter, 8-1.
Onaindia put the ball in the back of the net less than a minute into the final 7-minute quarter. Thirty-two seconds later Escarzaga extended the Liberty advantage to 11-9. Onaindia broke things open less than half a minute later when received a long outlet pass and scored on a one-on-one breakaway against Monarchs goalkeeper Brooklyn Cooper.
Exeter answered with a long goal by Kailani Minugh, but the Patriots offensive attack didn’t letup and scored four more goals over the game’s final 3:45.
“I think we started off kind of rough and I got ejected pretty early with two ejections, and then fourth quarter I came in and I didn’t get ejected, and we just scored a lot,” Onaindia said. “In the second half we did good.”
The Monarchs had six goals at halftime. However, in the second half they were continually stymied by Liberty’s defense anchored by goalkeeper Naveah Matthews, who had a plethora of stellar saves throughout the game.
Minugh and Emma Howell notched three goals each to lead Exeter in scoring.
“I’m so incredibly proud of all my teammates because Liberty just started (playing girls water polo) my sophomore year,” Liberty senior Kirsten Munoz said. “So, I’ve been with all these girls all the years, especially Emma and Alexis. I’ve seen them grow, and I’ve watched everybody grow together. And it’s made us so much better because we’ve all learned together and played together. Tonight, really showed that.”
Munoz had two goals for Liberty which extended its winning streak to four in a row. The Patriots closed out the season 12-4 after losing their first two games of the season.
“From the first game to now, we’ve shown just progress,” Gardella said. “I haven’t seen many step-backs. These girls have really been working together. I haven’t seen another team play like they do. There is definitely a bond between these girls. It’s unbreakable.”