Sailors hang on for 10-9 win

On a sunny yet chilly winter afternoon at Newport Harbor High, Bill Barnett used a walker to get around the pool deck.

Barnett, in his 49th and final year coaching at Newport Harbor, was back in action Friday after missing two games due to two separate hip procedures. He was released from Hoag Hospital Irvine on Christmas Day and returned to coaching the Sailors earlier this week.

“I had a hip replacement about three months ago, and somehow it became infected,” Barnett said. “They had to go in and put a new head on the femur, a new lining, and get out all the bacteria. Then they had to go back in and clean it out again, try to get out all the bacteria. That’s my tale of woe.”

Barnett said that he can walk without the walker, but it helps him get around, especially when it’s cold outside.

He saw his team’s shooting go cold in the fourth quarter of a Holiday Cup quarterfinal game against Orange Lutheran.

The Sailors went scoreless in the final frame. They had to hang on for a 10-9 win to advance to the tournament semifinals, where they’ll meet top-seeded defending champion Laguna Beach at 10:40 a.m. Saturday at Newport Harbor High.

Corona del Mar plays Foothill in the second semifinal, at 11:45 a.m. Saturday. The championship match is scheduled for 4:05 p.m., also at Newport Harbor High.

In the end, a couple of big performances helped Newport Harbor (5-2) move on. Senior center Chanel Schilling scored a career-high five goals, and senior goalie Carlee Kapana also made a career-high 19 saves.

“She’s really coming into her own,” Barnett said of the UC San Diego-bound Schilling, who played with a taped up right pinkie finger after she broke it in practice early last week. “I think she had a good summer. She’s got a long way to go though. She has a vast amount of improvement still [possible], I think.”

It would be hard to improve on the Sailors’ first-quarter performance. Newport Harbor, ranked No. 3 in CIF Southern Section Division 1, took it to No. 7 Orange Lutheran, earning a 4-0 lead. Schilling and senior defender Rachel Whitelegge each scored twice in the quarter.

Newport Harbor seemed to be in control throughout most of the game. Schilling took the pass from Kate Yasko and scored her fifth goal late in the third quarter on a backhand from set, giving the Sailors a 10-5 lead. But the Lancers (9-2) didn’t quit.

Emma Skelly scored bar-in from six meters out, then she added a rebound goal on the counterattack to cut the deficit. After the ball slipped out of a Newport player’s hands on the power play, Mollie Simmons countered for Orange Lutheran to trim the lead to 10-8 with 5:36 left.

“The last quarter, we just went to sleep,” Barnett said. “We did some very, very foolish things. We fed their counter with some of our stupid shooting. We took some very unnecessary shots. We did not use our brain very well.”

Orange Lutheran’s Campbell Ruh drew an exclusion and scored a goal with 22 seconds left, bringing the Lancers within a goal. But Newport Harbor was able to hang on.

Ellie Reid had two goals and an assist for the Sailors, while fellow senior Yasko had a goal and two assists. Senior captain Kate Pipkin had a steal, three assists and a field block.

Skelly led Orange Lutheran with four goals, and keeper Bailey Meyer made 11 saves.

Newport Harbor meets Laguna Beach for the second time this season in the tournament semifinals. The Breakers won the first meeting at their home pool, 9-8, on Dec. 23 despite playing without one of their top players in sophomore Aria Fischer. Laguna has Fischer (knee) back for the Holiday Cup, along with her senior sister Makenzie, who scored seven goals on the teams’ earlier meeting.

“I think we played really well as a team that game and it showed, even though they didn’t have Aria,” Schilling said. “We’d like to keep up with them again.”

Whitelegge, Pipkin and Katie Kearns each scored four goals for the Sailors in a 19-2 win over Riverside Poly earlier Friday, in the first round of the Holiday Cup. Schilling had three goals, Sammie Garcia scored twice and Reid and Yasko had one goal each.

Kapana (six saves and three assists) and Maddy Kanzler (five saves) shared time in goal against Poly.