SACRAMENTO – Cooper Harris has been a scoring threat for the Turlock High boys water polo team.

The Bulldog has punched 127 goals into the back of the cage this season. Six of those came in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Boys Water Polo – Division I semifinal game against Davis High’s squad.

Harris and Turlock, which entered the playoffs as the No. 3 seed, has had multiple scorers on this year’s team that won an outright Central California Athletic League title. That includes Michael Rowan at 84, Jacob Packwood at 57, Lars Wenstrand at 50 and Brayden Shively at 48.

But Davis, out of Yolo County, countered with its offensive fire power. That led to the Blue Devils eliminating the Bulldogs by a 14-8 score at the American River College on Wednesday.

Turlock head coach Nic Serratos was pleased with his team’s defensive efforts that countered Davis in the first part of the game.

“We just needed to play defense together,” Serratos said. “We did a good job of that, communicating.”

As the season ended for Turlock, Davis advances to the section D-I title game against top-seed Rio Americano of Sacramento that posted a 16-6 win over No. 6 Jesuit, out of Carmichael, in the other semifinal game. The Davis-Rio game will be played at the Roseville Aquatic Center today at 4 p.m.

Turlock (25-6) reached the final four after beating No. 6 Lodi by a football-type score of 34-14 on Nov. 8.

“(Thirty-four) goals in a game, in my entire coaching career, I’ve never heard of a team score (34) goals in a game,” said Davis head coach Tracy Stapleton.

The start of Wednesday’s playoff game had both teams guilty of many missed shots into the cage and turnovers on offense. But that comes down to each team’s defense forcing miscues on the other.

“Just a good team game early,” Serratos said.

That led to Davis and Turlock being scoreless until late in the first period. Then Blue Devil attacker Blake Fuschlin scored two goals under two minutes in the first period to give the local squad a 2-0 lead. He finished with eight of the team’s 14 goals.

In the second period, both teams exchanged goals. They combined nine goals, with the Blue Devils winning the advantage at 5-4. That led to a 7-4 halftime score.

The Blue Devils and Bulldogs continued their respective scoring sprees in the third period, scoring three goals each. But DHS managed to hold its slim lead at 10-7.

Both teams also had many shots into the back of the cage that either went to both sides of the net or bounced off the posts. DHS had 31 chances in the game and Turlock 19.

Despite the Bulldogs nipping at the Blue Devils’ heels, DHS, behind Fuschlin, continued to hang onto its lead.

Behind Fuschlin in scoring was Will Cutler with three goals. Luke Wright, along with Blue Devil teammates Harold Tollerup and Alex Erickson, each had a goal.

Shane Petty and Packwood scored a goal each for the Bulldogs.

Although the season ended one game shy of reaching the section title game, Serratos coached this squad that won the CCAL crown and swept city rival Pitman in both of their meetings this season.

“This group really put a lot into it,” Serratos said. “To see this senior class (six on the team) be the one that gets us over that hump. It’s cool to see this group kind of come together.”