In their third meeting this season, Soquel High’s boys water polo team finally beat Santa Cruz 13-8 in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League Tournament championship at Aptos High on Saturday.

Santa Cruz (19-5, 8-0), ranked No. 5 in the Central Coast Section by maxpreps.com, defeated the No. 11 Knights (18-7, 6-2) in both regular-season meetings, 13-8 on Oct. 1 and 13-10 on Oct. 16.

“Santa Cruz ad Soquel is a pretty big rivalry, so this means a lot to all the guys,” said Cash Wolf, a senior two-meter talent for the Knights.

Wolf scored three of his six goals in the third quarter. He also made two steals.

“Cash was awesome for us,” Knights coach Ryan Chapatte said. “He’s such a workhorse. He put away everything in front of the goal, and other guys did a great job setting him up.”

Senior Noah Piona and junior Stryder Stelck each scored three goals and had two assists for the Knights. Piona also had three steals.

Sophomore Sam Robertson also scored a goal, had two assists, and three steals. Freshman Jake Martinez had a pair of assists.

Senior goalie Jacob Henshaw made nine saves for the Knights.

Seniors Matthias Cruz and Gio Marini, junior Tate Wilson, and sophomore Xavier Hunter each scored twice for the Cardinals.

The Cardinals were without standout Hayden Johnson, who has a hand injury.

With Johnson out, the Knights were able to give their undivided attention to defending Pa’ kalani Vaka-Saxton, the Cardinals’ leading scorer this season with 99 goals.

“We did it with defense,” said Chapatte, of the win. “We shifted out focus to Pa’ kalani. We did everything to get the ball out of his hands. That was the plan. There were some stretches where they didn’t put up any goals and we slowly built a lead.”

“In some of our previous games, we were too stagnant on defense,” Wolf said. “Moving with their offense and staying engaged was big for us.”

The CCS seeding meeting takes place in San Jose on Monday at 4 p.m.

Girls

Soquel 12, at Aptos 6: The Knights, ranked No. 8 in California and No. 2 in the CCS by maxpreps.com, doubled up on the Mariners to earn their 14th consecutive SCCAL Tournament title, the first under first-year head coach Shelby White.

Freshmen Grace Graessle and Keira “Kiki” Burke paced Soquel. Graessle scored four goals, had one assist, and one steal, and Burke scored twice, had an assist, and a game-high six steals. Both players each drew an ejection.

“They’re great for our program,” said White, of her freshmen duo. “They bring a lot of energy. They’ve worked so hard this season and definitely deserved it. They’ve remained really consistent, the whole team really has. We wanted to play good defense and attack on offense and we did just that.”

Aptos stayed close and trailed 3-2 after the first quarter, but the Knights outscored the Mariners 5-0 in the second quarter for an 8-2 lead at the half. Soquel continued to play shut-down defense in the third quarter and extended its lead to 12-2. The Mariners closed the game with three unanswered goals in the fourth quarter.

Junior center defender Natasha Ackerstein also scored twice for the Knights, had an assist, one steal, and drew three ejections.

Sophomore Liz Penny added a goal, four assists and two steals, and drew two ejections. She has scored 68 goals for the Knights this season and has 37 assists, both team-leading totals.

Sophomore Isabella “Izzie” Bridi-Milligan had a goal and two steals for Soquel. and junior Libby Forrest and freshman Alida Keet also scored.

Senior goalie Maddison Barwick made seven saves.

The CCS seeding meeting takes place in San Jose on Monday at 6 p.m. Soquel will compete in the prestigious Open Division.