WALNUT — There was no drama, no fantastic finish needed for the San Dimas girls water polo team to win its first CIF Southern Section championship.

San Dimas raced to a comfortable lead and shut out Troy in the second half for a 9-2 victory in the Division 4 final Saturday, sparking a long-awaited celebration for the Saints.

Faith Kearns led them with three goals and Bella Marroquin and Ava Mercado had two goals apiece.

But it was the steady play of goalkeeper Madison Curtis, who made stop after stop, and the Saints’ smothering defense that was key to their victory at Mt. SAC.

“Madison Curtis had a great game and we knew she would, she’s been playing like that all year,” San Dimas coach Jessee Johnston said. “We’ve worked a lot with her about coming out of the goal and being a seventh defender and taking away those over-passes and under-passes, and some of those blocks, they were crucial.”

Mercado and all of the Saints were just as good defensively as offensively, swarming to Troy attackers before they could get shots off.

It had to be an emotional day for Mercado, who lost her father, a Los Angeles Country firefighter, in December. On Saturday, there were several Los Angeles County firefighters who attended the game to support her.

Mercado shared the feelings of her teammates afterward, that defense is the reason they were holding a trophy afterward.

“Our defense was the most important part of the game,” Mercado said. “We’ve always done well with (our offense), but at the end of the day, it was defense that won the game. It’s totally unreal. I never would have expected this. If you told me at the beginning of the season we would win CIF, I wouldn’t of believed you.”

The Saints defense propelled their offense to take a commanding lead early.

Mercado and Kearns each scored twice in the first quarter to help the Saints to a 5-2 lead.

And the scoring continued. Marroquin grabbed a missed shot and fired it home and Chloe Perez added another goal to give the Saints a 7-2 lead at half.

The Saints added two more goals in the second half to close it out.

Kearns said they came out looking to strike early and often.

“We went in with a great mindset,” Kearns said. “Our coaches talked us through how we were going to play. We knew they were a strong team, but luckily we took our nerves and turned it into energy and we executed perfectly.”

Marroquin was another big contributor. Her smothering defense and timely goals were part of the Saints’ total package. She talked about how their defense led to opportunities.

“We really worked hard on the defensive end, that was the biggest part of our game,” Marroquin said. “We found our opportunities on offense and were able to counter a lot and that helped us score a lot of goals. The feeling is unreal, we really weren’t expecting this at the beginning of the season.”

The Saints’ season will continue next week in the CIF State Southern California Regional playoffs.

For Johnston, he’s going to enjoy this one first.