Fun finales for DHS water polo

It wasn’t the most glamorous Senior Night ever, but it sure was fun for the Davis High girls water polo team on Wednesday at Arroyo Pool.

Meanwhile, the Blue Devil boys used their final home match to get ready for an important Thursday matchup at Rio Americano. Of course, the local boys were able to fine-tune a few areas of the game at the same time they were defeating Laguna Creek, 12-3.

After DHS girls head coach Doug Wright gave a speech about each of his four seniors — Alicia Demaree, Claire Evans, Marina Mobley and Katie Van Deynze —  to a crowd of family and friends sitting in the bleachers, the Devils blew out the Cardinals, 19-1.

All three seniors who played — Mobley sat out the match with a minor concussion — had big nights as Davis improved to 19-4 on the season. Goalie Demaree blocked several shots and held LCHS to one goal in the first half, while Evans scored four goals and took over for Demaree in the cage in the final minutes of play. Van Deynze scored four goals of her own, despite being swarmed by defenders throughout the game.

“Claire, Katie and Alicia all start for us regularly and usually on Senior Night, you have your seniors start, so that was good,” Wright said. “And we played well and (the seniors) played the majority of the game.”

Colby Stapleton scored three goals for the Blue Devils, who will travel with the boys to take on Rio Americano in Sacramento on Thursday, then head to the Bay Area for the NorCal tournament this weekend.

The DHS boys (16-6) took advantage of a relatively easy matchup to work on their zone defense and offensive sets in preparation for Thursday’s game against the Raiders.

“We play them every year,” said boys head coach Tracy Stapleton. “It’s going to be a competitive game and it’s not in any way, shape or form, going to be some cake walk. We could go there and they could hand us our lunch.”

Fortunately, the Devils will be able to rely on players like Connor Stapleton, who scored five goals against the Cardinals, and Garret Fisk and Bradley Nicholson, who scored two apiece to seal the win.

Zach Anderson, Ben Diamant and Valente Dolcini rounded out the Davis scoring.

— Reach Will Bellamy at wbellamy@davisenterprise.net