Boys’ Water Polo: CdM wins BOTB preview

The Battle of the Bay came a week early.

It dawned on Corona del Mar High boys’ water polo coach Barry O’Dea as he was driving over to the Newport Harbor High pool Saturday morning. A week from now, his Sea Kings will play host to the Sailors in the official Battle of the Bay game the night of Oct. 4.

For this weekend, a South Coast Tournament fifth-place semifinal game between the rivals would have to suffice.

“I totally forgot that we play them next Saturday,” O’Dea said. “It’s like, ‘Oh, wow.’ It just feels like every year, Newport and Long Beach Wilson, we play them three or four times a year. It’s the two teams that we always keep running into.”

O’Dea and the Sea Kings hope that Saturday’s result was a good precursor of things to come.

CdM senior Garrett Spruth scored the winning penalty shot in sudden-death overtime, drawn by Brendan Hack, and the Sea Kings escaped with a 9-8 win over Newport Harbor in the tournament fifth-place semifinal game.

Later Saturday afternoon, CdM took fifth place by defeating Huntington Beach, 12-9.

That was the best result the Sea Kings could achieve in the 32-team tournament after losing to Loyola, 11-7, in the quarterfinals Friday night.

“It’s not bad,” O’Dea said. “It’s not where we would have liked to have been, but we’re going in a positive direction anyway.”

Corona del Mar (5-2) never trailed against Newport Harbor (4-9), but the Sailors rallied after Hack put CdM ahead, 7-3, midway through the third quarter. Newport used two goals from senior captain Clay Davison, then an outside lob from freshman Hannes Daube, to pull closer.

The Sailors tied the score at 8-8 on Daube’s goal with 3:58 left in regulation. It stayed that way until the sudden death overtime session.

“We stopped making some of our rotations on defense and it cost us,” O’Dea said. “We let them back in the game. All in all, [it feels good] to win. We are definitely better than what we put in that game. We missed a lot of counterattack opportunities where we could have really broken that game wide open. I don’t know if that’s going to always be the case for us.”

Newport Harbor’s Jack Mooers won the overtime sprint, and Coach Marco Palazzo called timeout to set up a potential game-winning play. Enter Ashton Jajonie.

The CdM senior’s eighth steal of the game was the biggest. He fed Jon Polos on the counterattack, and Polos drew a five-meter penalty shot. But Newport Harbor senior goalie Nick Wood (11 saves) made the save on the penalty shot, so the teams played on.

After CdM got the ball back, Hack drew another penalty shot. This time, Spruth didn’t miss, scoring the game-winning goal into the right corner.

Jajonie, who had three assists along with his eight steals for CdM, said he expected a spirited, physical game from Harbor.

“We knew they were going to come out hard. We tried to prepare our best for it,” Jajonie said. “We usually win the physical games ... We’re capable of going six-for-six, always high energy. That feeds our counterattack, which is our biggest strength. We just eat teams alive.”

Davison led all players with four goals for Harbor, and sophomore Ryan Hurst also had a strong game with three steals, three exclusions drawn and two field blocks.

Spruth led CdM players with three goals. Hack had two goals and three steals for the Sea Kings, while Jack Trush also had two goals and a pair of field blocks. Andres White had two steals, and Nigel Bress had six saves and three steals in goal.

Ben Brooks also scored twice at center for CdM, forming a strong partnership there with his fellow junior, Hack.

“They’re coming along nicely,” O’Dea said.

Trush and Jajonie each had three goals in the fifth-place win over Huntington Beach, with Spruth and Patrick Ong each scoring twice. Bress made 12 saves.

Newport Harbor ended up losing to Dana Hills, 14-12, in the seventh-place game. Six of the Sailors’ nine losses so far this season have come by a single goal.

Davison led Newport with four goals, while Gavin Kunkle and Hurst scored two goals each.

“It is because we are not taking care of little details, [on] offense and defense, that could make a difference,” Palazzo said. “We’re making a lot of mistakes. If we could handle our opportunities with more focus, it would be better. The [second-round South Coast Tournament] game we won against Servite, we were focused and in control. The little details, you put them together and it makes a huge difference. We’re getting better and we’re going to be ready later in the season.”

Palazzo, however, believes his team is improving and will be a force by the end of the season.

“My boys, they were smiling during the timeout, they were smiling during the overtime [against CdM],” he said. “It was a really fun game for the fans, and it was a really good [preview of] next Saturday. You can win or lose, but once you finish a game with a smile on your face, being aware of what you need to do better, it is what a coach wishes to get every game.”

Mater Dei won its fifth straight South Coast Tournament title, defeating Loyola, 15-10, in the championship match.