SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Senior Piper Brostrom logged team bests of seven goals and six assists, senior Miranda Ferguson and junior Frannie Wells each netted five scores, while senior goalkeeper Sophia Santsche Chavez posted 10 saves and six assists, propelling No. 3 seed St. Francis to a 21-2 win over No. 14 Golden Valley in a Sac-Joaquin Section Division II girls' water polo tournament first-round contest Tuesday night at American River College.

The Troubadours improve to 17-9 for the season, and will host sixth-seeded Del Oro on Thursday. The Golden Eagles easily defeated No. 11 Bella Vista, 18-7, on the opposite part of the bracket.

Brostrom completed her hat trick in the first quarter to lead St. Francis to a 6-1 start, hit her fourth on her own drawn exclusion with 45 seconds left in the half to boost that lead to 12-1, finished a counterattack and tipped in a saved Wells shot for two more in the third, then added a putback of an Erin Maeng bar-out miss late in the fourth. Of Brostrom's steals, two led directly to goals by Wells while another put an end to a Cougar power play nearing the two-minute mark of the fourth.

Wells had all five of her goals in the first half, including three straight in the span of a minute near the end of the second quarter. Ferguson spread her offense throughout the game, including the game's first goal: she drew an exclusion at two meters, passed out to Audrey Ellis, then transformed the return pass into an assist for the 6-on-5 conversion just 22 ticks after the opening sprint.

Ferguson scored on a full 360-degree turn at set with 5:23 in the second, then assisted Brostrom on a power play with 45 seconds left before the break. She and Brostrom exchanged roles at the 3:09 mark in the third to complete the hat trick, then Ferguson converted an Emma Dietrich pass with 10 seconds left in the third for her fourth score. Finally, Ferguson found the back of the net for a fifth time with 80 seconds remaining in the game, thanks to a feed from senior Clare Krengel.

Santsche Chavez did not face a shot on frame in the first three minutes of the game, and even surrendered a goal before she could register her first save. GV senior Jaxson Gong won a battle at set and sneaked a goal past the Troubie netminder at the 3:31 mark in the first. However, that ended up as the last Cougar score until Gong hit a 6-on-5 goal with 20 seconds left in the fourth.

In the meantime, Santsche-Chavez halted 10 GV shots, including an unlikely block in the final seconds of the first quarter. With half a shot clock remaining, Santsche-Chavez walked the ball up to midtank with the intention of taking a buzzer-beating shot. Instead, St. Francis committed a foul away from the ball, granting Gong a free throw against an empty net. Santsche-Chavez retreated to the cage while keeping pace with the Cougar attacker, then caught just enough of Gong's shot to deflect the ball off course.

Santsche-Chavez got another chance to score in the waning of the seconds of the second quarter. This time, she fired her shot cleanly, and watched as it nosed under the crossbar, well out of the reach of GV goalkeeper Courtney Imler

Dietrich and senior Addie Hutchcraft accounted for the three remaining goals for SF. Dietrich finished long counterattacks in each of the third and fourth frames, while Hutchcraft netted hers with a minute left in the third.  

Thursday's quarterfinal is tentatively scheduled for 5:30 p.m., although that start time is highly subject to change due to the number of other SJS playoff games held at American River College. This will be the third meeting between the Troubies and Golden Eagles in 2024, as both are Sierra Foothill League members. St. Francis won the previous meeting in overtime, 7-6, with Santsche-Chavez amassing a season-best 23 saves in the victory.

UPDATE 11/6: Thursday's second-round game between St. Francis and Del Oro will take place at 5 p.m. at American River College.