Newport Harbor reaches championship match

Patrick Laverty

Nothing quite takes the pressure off a favored team like an early

score. Newport Harbor High’s field hockey team got two of them.

The Sailors, the No. 1 seed in the Los Angeles Field Hockey

Association Tournament of Champions, reached the championship game

for the fourth straight year by scoring two goals within the first

four minutes for a 2-0 victory over host Huntington Beach Thursday.

Newport Harbor (19-1), which has lost each of the past three

championship games, will play Harvard-Westlake, which defeated

Edison, 1-0, Thursday. The game is scheduled for 11:30 a.m., but is

expected to be moved to 8:30 a.m. if it is raining. The Sailors,

champions of the Sunset League, lost last year’s final to

Harvard-Westlake in the rain.

“We’re due,” Sailors Coach Sharon Wolfe said.

Harvard-Westlake and Edison are the only teams to score against

the Sailors this season. Edison handed Newport Harbor its only loss,

but the Sailors came back to defeat the Chargers Monday, starting a

stretch of four games in six days that, so far, has coincided with

excellent play on the part of Harbor.

After a seven-day break because of the smoke from the fires in

Southern California, the Sailors won the league championship by

defeating Edison, toppled Glendora in the first round of the

Tournament of Champions and blanked Huntington Beach in the

semifinals.

“This whole week we’ve just been really on,” Wolfe said. “We’ve

played better team ball. We’ve had better intensity and everybody’s

been contributing on the field.”

Those contributions began early against Huntington Beach, with the

Sailors scoring on their first corner, two minutes into the game.

Senior Kerrie Gates put the ball into play, Kristen Jendrusina

stopped it at the top of the circle and Jillianne Whitfield struck a

perfect ball past the Huntington Beach goalkeeper for a 1-0 lead.

“We like to score early because it does take the pressure off,”

Wolfe said. “We figure if we get one goal early, the other team will

come back stronger. A second goal really takes a lot out of other

team.”

Harbor got its second goal two minutes later after a strong

restart by Whitfield found Tiffany Vandersloot in front of the cage

and she scored, increasing the Sailors’ advantage to 2-0.

From there, Harbor let its defense maintain the advantage. The

Sailors have allowed just two goals in 20 games this season.

While the Sailors controlled possession, getting off 25 shots in

the game, Huntington Beach attempted to retaliate with counter

attacks.

But Sailors defenders Lauren Curtis and Danielle Pfaff were there

to halt the attacks more often than not. Curtis didn’t allow the

Oilers to mount an attack down the left side of the field, while

Pfaff stopped Huntington Beach’s best opportunity late in the first

half along the right sideline.

“We were staying so composed,” Wolfe said. “Everybody was so

spread out and if somebody got beat, somebody else was right there to

make the play.”

When the Oilers did maintain possession inside the circle, Newport

Harbor goalie Amanda Wittman served as the last line of defense,

making a save in each half.