Sailors must settle for second
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Bryce Alderton
The Newport Harbor High girls water polo team knew it would have to
work for every goal they might score against Sea View League rival
Foothill.
But the Sailors couldn’t have imagined the Knights would provide
the resistance they did on the biggest stage.
Try as they might with 26 shots, the second-seeded Sailors
couldn’t penetrate the Knights’ defensive shield enough and Foothill
capped its season with an 8-4 victory, its 16th straight win, in the
CIF Southern Section Division I final Tuesday night at Belmont Plaza.
The fourth-seeded Knights (27-3) won their fifth section title in
the last six years with a sterling defense that held Newport (27-4),
which had averaged 14 goals in three prior playoff games, to one goal
until Sailors’ junior Kally Lucas scored on a six-on-five to make it
7-2 with 1 minute, 56 seconds left in the third period.
“The defense has been phenomenal the last part of the season,”
said Foothill Coach Dave Mikesell, dripping wet after a celebratory
leap into the pool. “We refocused and made some changes on the
six-on-five.”
The Sailors finished 2 of 9 on the player advantage while Foothill
went 0 for 1.
“Newport has ran a 3-3 on us the last two years ... so we adapted
and took as much of the cage away as possible and go for the field
blocks, which were tremendous,” Mikesell said.
The Knights, who fell in this game last year against Newport,
10-8, held the Sailors scoreless in the second period and led, 4-1,
at halftime.
Junior Grace Reynolds, a United States youth national team member,
tallied three of her game-high four goals in the first half including
two deftly-place shots from the perimeter that found the corners of
the cage.
The Knights’ hot perimeter shooting continued into the second half
with three straight goals from beyond set that upped the lead to 7-1
with 3:39 left in the third quarter.
Newport Coach Bill Barnett acknowledged he was surprised the lead
swelled as much as it did from two teams whose average margin of
victory was 2.25 goals in four prior meetings the squads had split
this season.
Barnett couldn’t fault the effort, however,
“We did a good job moving the ball on the counter, but anytime we
had a good chance, we couldn’t do anything with it,” said Barnett,
who has led Newport to two titles since the sport became CIF
sanctioned in 1998. “We had good overall effort up and down the pool,
I can’t fault them. Some nights you don’t shoot well. It’s like
basketball, some nights the ball goes through the hoop and sometimes
it doesn’t.”
The Sea View League champion Sailors had at least six bar outs
among other near misses. Trailing, 8-2, to start the fourth quarter,
senior Melissa Wheeler’s skip shot hit the left post.
Junior Leah Robertson’s steal on the ensuing possession led to a
counterattack that found Lucas on the wing. Her cross-cage lob shot,
though, landed softly against the right post and floated away.
Newport senior Ashling Taylor, who finished the season with 78
goals, met several double and, occasionally, triple teams in set,
making an open look nearly impossible.
“We were missing [shots] early, but we had our stuff,” said
Taylor, who finished with three steals.
Senior Anne Belden, bound for UCLA, scored two late goals to
lessen the deficit and finished with a team-high three scores for the
Sailors, upping her season total to 88.
Belden added an assist while Lucas had two steals. Senior
goalkeepers Kendal Nelson and Elizabeth Layton made three and one
save, respectively, for the Sailors. Teammates Amanda Barto, Laurel
Laidlaw, Bryndis Klein, Jessie Womble and Katelyn Roberts played
their final games for Newport.
CIF Division I
Final
Foothill 8,
Newport Harbor 4
Score by Quarters
*--*
Newport 1 0 1 2 -- 4
Foothill 3 1 4 0 -- 8
*--*
Newport -- Belden 3, Lucas 1. Saves -- Nelson 3, Layton 1.
Foothill -- Reynolds 4, Kutcher 1, Satchell 2, McLain 1. Saves --
Oland 5.
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