Sailors fall short to Mater Dei
A week before the release of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoff pairings, Newport Harbor High got one last look at one of the top four boys’ water polo teams.
The Sailors have played three of the four teams, all of which appear on clear paths to earning seeds in the postseason. If Newport Harbor hoped to get any consideration for a top-four seed, it needed to upset No. 4-ranked Mater Dei on Saturday.
The Sailors aren’t too far behind the Monarchs in the poll, as they’re the No. 6 team. And 11 minutes into their nonleague game, it was Mater Dei trailing host Newport Harbor.
Newport Harbor’s two-goal lead didn’t hold up, though. The Monarchs scored six straight goals during a 4½-minute stretch, allowing them to pull away for a 12-8 win.
Mater Dei (18-6) beat Newport Harbor (17-8) for the second time this year. Unlike the meeting at Newport Harbor on Sept. 24, in the fifth-place game the Monarchs won, 15-8, during the South Coast Tournament, the Sailors looked like they could possibly knock off Mater Dei.
The Sailors scored the first two goals, Connor Turnbow-Lindenstadt and Makoto Kenney each found the back of the net. The next two-goal run by the Sailors involved Kenney and Jason Grew, giving Newport Harbor a 6-4 lead with 4:38 left in the first half.
Grew’s goal came on an extra-man advantage, an area the Sailors converted three of their first four chances. The Monarchs had as many power-play opportunities in the first 9½ minutes, but they were only successful once.
Mater Dei found itself back on the power play, and this time it capitalized. Warren Loth scored with 2:48 left before halftime, cutting Newport Harbor’s lead to one.
The one-goal deficit quickly turned into a one-goal advantage for the Monarchs. Kirby Slater and Christian Hockenbury each produced a goal, helping Mater Dei take a 7-6 lead into the break.
“We were up, 6-4, and we were in a good spot,” Newport Harbor Coach Ross Sinclair said. “I thought at that point we kind of got a little comfortable and went away from our game plan for a little bit, and [against] a good team like Mater Dei, [an] explosive, fast team, [it] made us pay and rattled off three straight goals. That’s tough. Momentum-wise, it’s really hard to get that back, and the rest of the game we were playing catch up.”
Trying to come from behind is what the Sailors have tried to do when facing one of the current top-four ranked teams. They have also fallen short against No. 1 Studio City Harvard-Westlake, 12-4, and No. 2 Huntington Beach, 10-7.
Playing much of the second half against Mater Dei without two defenders, Nic Rimlinger and Grew, both had three exclusions, was difficult for the Sailors.
Seven seconds into the third quarter, Ian Minsterman scored the first of his two goals for Mater Dei. Then Slater and Loth added their second goals to put the Monarchs ahead, 10-6.
The Sailors got within 10-8, on goals by Kenney, his third, and Cole Brosnan, his second. But late in the third quarter, Hockenbury scored on a power play. Hockenbury and Jackson Seybold, a Newport Beach resident, led Mater Dei with three goals apiece.
“We played a lot better. We’re better a team than when we played [Mater Dei five] weeks ago,” said Sinclair, whose team has two home games next week, the Sunset League final with Los Alamitos on Wednesday and a nonleague game with Laguna Beach on Friday, before the playoffs start. “Us being [ranked] sixth and them fourth, [a win] could have helped us out. We’re in a win-win [situation]. We don’t go down [in the Division 1 poll] from this loss.”
