Sailors blast Vikings

It’s hard to find a bigger fan of the Los Angeles Lakers than Newport Harbor High boys’ water polo coach Ross Sinclair.

Sinclair wore some Lakers socks to the Sailors’ Sunset League game against Marina on Wednesday night. He’s excited for the start of the NBA regular season.

“They’re not going to be in the upper echelon of it all, but I think if everyone stays healthy and plays, we can be good,” Sinclair said. “I’m looking forward to it. I love the Lakers. Win or lose, I’ll still support.”

Some of the same words can ring true for Sinclair’s Sailors. They are not ranked in the upper echelon of CIF Southern Section Division 1, though their ranking of No. 7 is up two spots from a week ago.

But the Sailors have played No. 4 Corona del Mar and No. 5 Huntington Beach tough, losing by a goal in each match. They do not appear to be a team that anyone particularly wants to play when the Division 1 playoffs begin in two weeks.

On Wednesday night they blitzed Marina, 20-7, on senior night. Newport Harbor is now 14-10 overall, 3-1 in league, and can clinch at least outright second place in league by beating Edison next week.

The Sailors celebrated their four seniors, goalkeepers Joe Ferraro and Ryan Taylor, center Gavin Kunkle and defender Ben Morrison. Each contributed against the Vikings (13-8, 1-3).

Ferraro and Taylor each played a half in the cage and each made six saves. Kunkle had two goals and a steal, while Morrison contributed two goals, two steals, an assist and a field block.

“This game every year is always fun,” Morrison said. “It’s just a great atmosphere. We’re trying to put together a good little string before CIF starts.”

Junior Connor Turnbow-Lindenstadt scored a season-high eight goals for the Sailors, who keyed on two of Marina’s best players, junior Leo Yuno and senior Luka Karaman. The Vikings liked to set the two players up with shots from the perimeter. Karaman scored twice, and Yuno scored on the Vikings’ first possession of the game but not again.

“It was hard,” Sinclair said. “It’s a little unorthodox style of water polo for them ... for us, we had to kind of think outside the box and utilize our depth, which we did. Everyone got in there and contributed, which was good.”

The Sailors’ lead was just 6-4 early in the second quarter, but they scored seven straight goals to take a 13-4 lead late in the half. Three of the goals came from Turnbow-Lindenstadt, and four of them came on the counterattack.

“We talked about opening the game up with our defense, and coming out and pressing and showing off our conditioning and counterattack,” Sinclair said.

Junior co-captain Cole Brosnan had four goals, two assists and two steals for the Sailors, while John Rankin (two goals), Ryan Brosnan and Ben Toffel also scored for Newport Harbor. Junior co-captain Nic Rimlinger had three steals, and sophomore Jason Grew added an assist.

Sinclair said Kunkle, who scored the team’s first three goals in Tuesday’s 13-7 win over San Clemente, continued his recent strong play.

To Kunkle, the reason for the hot spurt is simple.

“It’s time I step it up as a senior and be a leader on the team,” he said.