Newport Beach finishes fourth

IRVINE — The Newport Beach Water Polo Club 14-and-under boys team did not walk away from the USA Water Polo Junior Olympics with a medal.

Newport Beach was denied after losing twice Tuesday at Woollett Aquatics Center. The local team fell to 680 Red, 7-5, in the platinum bracket semifinals and to Trojan Cardinal, 7-6, in the bronze-medal match.

Yet, top four in the country isn’t so bad after all.

“It’s really hard because of the way we lost, but the guys had a great tournament,” Coach Stefano Ragosa said. “We’re still top four in the country, a huge result, considering all these guys live in the same neighborhood. Most of these teams pull kids from different areas, make super-teams. All these kids grew up together, went through Junior Lifeguards together. Now they’re going to high school together, and I’m very proud of them. The whole year has been amazing. We got a lot of medals, won a lot of tournaments throughout the year.”

The majority of the Newport Beach players will be freshmen at Newport Harbor High this fall. The result in the bronze-medal match was tough, as Newport Beach had defeated Trojan Cardinal in a quarterfinal shootout game Monday at Mater Dei High.

On Tuesday, it was too much Stefan Vavic, who is the youngest of USC Coach Jovan Vavic’s four children. Stefan scored a game-high four goals, including the winner with 23 seconds left in the game after getting open in front of the goal.

Newport Beach did not get another shot off before the game ended.

“It’s part of the sport,” Ragosa said. “You win games, you lose games, and it’s a life lesson for these kids. We don’t have a medal, but we had an amazing season.”

Tomaso Baldineti, a talented lefty, led a balanced Newport Beach attack with two goals. Charlie Covina, Makoto Kenney, Makana Sanita and center Jake Sullivan all scored once, while goalie Cal Meyer made 11 saves.

Michael Paduano, Jake Wilson, Jonathan Rimlinger, Jack White, Ike Love, Soleil Nguyen and Ethan Tenore also contributed for Newport Beach, which led most of the game and had a 5-3 advantage at halftime.

But Trojan Cardinal stormed back. Trojan took its first lead of the game, at 6-5, when Vavic struck from outside late in the third quarter.

Newport Beach tied the game in the final minute, after Covina fed Baldineti for the score. But Vavic broke the tie on his team’s ensuing possession.

“I think that we tried,” said Love, who is one of the youngest players on Newport Beach as an incoming eighth-grader at Ensign Intermediate School. “Of course, you’re going to make mistakes, but I think what matters is that we tried. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the medal, but I still think that we had a good tournament ... Fourth in the country is great.”

Newport Beach’s 12-and-under boys team, coached by Marco Palazzo, had its own strong result by finishing eighth in the platinum bracket. That team consisted of Kealoha Sanita, William Kelly, Grant Loth, Sam Allen, August Oeding, Richard Rimlinger, Jackson Banta, Luke Redoutey, Elias Liechty, Kiernen Springborn, Benjamin Liechty, Mason Hunt, Kai Cernich and Connor Cohen.

To Ragosa, this was another notice that the future is bright at Newport Harbor High, which finished just 10-17 last fall during the boys’ water polo season.

“I hope Newport Harbor will get back where it was,” Ragosa said. “It takes time, but we’re on the right track ... Of course, it is about talent, but at Newport there is enough talent to shine again.”

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•In other Junior Olympics action from Tuesday, Corona del Mar High junior-to-be Connor Turnbow-Lindenstadt helped Del Mar make the 16-and-under platinum division title match.

Del Mar lost to Northwood, which features players from Orange Lutheran High, 7-5, in the title match. Turnbow-Lindenstadt had two goals, two steals and a field block in the loss.

Hannes Daube, who played for Newport Harbor as a freshman but has transferred to Orange Lutheran, scored twice for the winners.

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•Newport Beach’s 18-and-under team finished as bronze medalists in the gold bracket of the championship division.

Newport Beach defeated Greenwich Aquatics, 13-7, for the bronze at UC Irvine. The 18-and-under team, made up of players who attend Newport Harbor High, went 5-4 overall in the four-day tournament.

“In the end, it was a long weekend, the end of a long summer,” Coach Ross Sinclair said. “We grinded this summer ... it was good to finish the tournament off with a win.”

Sinclair said that incoming seniors Ben Morrison, as well as Joe Ferraro in goal, were standouts for his team.

CdM Blue, featuring players from Corona del Mar High, finished 22nd in the 18-and-under platinum bracket.

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•CdM Patriot, featuring a mixture of Corona del Mar and Beckman players, finished 19th in the platinum division of the 16-and-under age division after beating Sharks, 11-6, at Newport Harbor High.

Players for CdM Patriot included Matthew Tran, Nicholas Britt, Cole Strohson, Kade Johnson, Evan Kim, Kevin Langley, Jay Morris, Daniel Rafferty, Mason Reynoso, Nicholas Snyder, Christopher Cottrell, Ian Holder, William Ueberroth, Samuel Wardwell and Baylor Reynoso. Beckman Coach Sam Bailey, formerly the CdM girls’ water polo coach, was the team’s head coach, assisted by CdM’s Corey Delahunt.