After being on the short end of quite a few blowouts in recent
seasons, Gilroy girls’ water polo coach Andy Been could feel
winless Watsonville’s pain.
Gilroy – After being on the short end of quite a few blowouts in recent seasons, Gilroy girls’ water polo coach Andy Been could feel winless Watsonville’s pain.
He did everything he could to keep the score down Tuesday, but the Mustangs still posted a 20-2 Tri-County Athletic League win over the Wildcatz.
After Jenny Ailes scored her fourth goal, he instructed Gilroy’s leading scorer to not shoot. So Ailes came up with four assists. Meanwhile, senior Cassie Collum came away with a career-high four goals.
He instructed his girls not to shoot until they had made five passes in the second half. And yet the Mustangs (7-8-1 overall, 4-3 TCAL) still scored eight second-half goals.
“We’ve been on the other side,” Been said. “This is the first time since I’ve been here that we beat Watsonville. We usually lose to them in the last second on a heartbreaker.”
There was no chance that was going to happen Tuesday. GHS had five goals before the game was four minutes old.
It was 6-0 after the first period. After Ailes scored her fourth and final goal to make it 7-0, Sabrina Siqueros got Watsonville (0-10) on the scoreboard. But the Mustangs scored six in a row and led 13-2 at halftime.
Lauren Baty finished with three goals for GHS. Meagan Collett and Alex Mara had two each, and Alex Marshall, Kaitlin Muraoka, Kelly Been, Lauren Castruita and Katie Whittaker each scored once for the Mustangs.
For girls like Ailes, Been, Collum, Mara, Castruita and Sarah Barnett, this was almost the exact opposite of their first game three years ago as jayvees when they lost to San Benito 17-3.
“It’s better to be on this side of it,” Collum said.
