Oilers move to one win away from crown

The Huntington Beach High field hockey team is heading to the championship game of the Southern California field hockey playoffs.

The Oilers reserved a spot in today’s 4:30 p.m. title match by surviving visiting Glendora, 2-1, in Tuesday’s overtime thriller played at Worthy Park in Huntington Beach.

Huntington will meet either Sunset League foe Newport Harbor or Harvard-Westlake in today’s final at Edison High.

The third-place game between Glendora and the loser of the Newport Harbor-Harvard-Westlake match will precede the championship game.

The Oilers grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first period when Lina Truong scored off an assist from Colleen Ryan. Glendora scored the tying goal in the second period and the teams went into a 10-minute overtime. With just over a minute to play in overtime, Claire Prestridge netted the goal that sent Huntington onto today’s final.

On Monday, Huntington won its opening-round postseason game by blanking visiting Bonita, 4-0, at Worthy Park. The Oilers scored all four of the game’s goals in the second half. Truong scored twice, and Colleen Ryan and Claire Prestridge both scored once. Prestridge and Ashlyn Pooler picked up assists.

Defensively, Huntington was led by defenders Julia Fujiwara, Stephanie Walters, Lindsay Sebastian, Brittany Hazard and goalie Maelen Lockhart.

In previous action, neither Huntington nor Edison could score through regulation or a 10-minute overtime period, and the teams played to a scoreless tie Oct. 30, the final game in the Sunset League season.

Huntington, coached by Cathy VanDoornum and Mindi Masters, won the Sunset League championship with an 8-0-2 record. Maelen Lockhart surrendered only three goals in league play.

Newport Harbor, which won its first-round playoff game Monday by defeating Louisville, 3-2, finished second behind Huntington and Edison � which lost its playoff game Monday to Glendora, 2-0 � finished third.

Another Sunset League team, Fountain Valley, dropped its first-round playoff game Monday, falling, 4-1, to Harvard-Westlake.

Huntington is 20-3-5 overall. Among the team highlights this season is a first-place finish at the Orange County Invitational on Oct. 11 at Marina High.

The 2008 Oilers are: Maelen Lockhart, Lina Truong, Colleen Ryan, Claire Prestridge, Ashlyn Pooler, Julia Fujuwara, Stephanie Walters, Lindsay Sebastian, Brittany Hazard, Taryn Rescigno, Meagan Good, Stephanie Moss, Jessica Van Arsdale, Jordan Mulholland, Liz Tornheim and Chelsea Finamore.