A walk in park for Harbor Day

Rick Devereux

Wednesday’s boys third- and fourth-grade gold division Daily Pilot

Cup pool-play match between Newport Elementary and Harbor Day was

actually decided by a baseball game.

Four Newport Elementary players were not in attendance because of

prior obligations to Little League playoff games, leaving them with

eight players, plus the goalkeeper on the field and without

substitutions throughout the 7-0 Harbor Day victory.

Harbor Day assistant coach Rob Case said the substitution

advantage “helped a lot.”

The Seahawks started the game with a field of 10 players, plus a

goalie and took a 4-0 lead, after which Harbor Day went down to eight

plus the goalkeeper.

“For coming in worried that half our guys were missing, I thought

the team played well,” Tritons Coach Kim Hartnett said.

Jack Gorab opened up the game with a score off an assist from

Mason Case. Case grabbed his second assist moments later when he set

up Brandon Zelner’s goal. Zelner widened Harbor Day’s lead when he

sent a nice ball from the left side to the top-right corner of the

net. Davis Case, Mason’s brother, made it 4-0 when he gathered Landon

Gyulay’s centering pass and sent the ball to the back of the net.

Following the flurry of goals in the first six minutes for the

Seahawks, Gorab had a goal disallowed because of offsides. Mason Case

scored on a cross shot just before the first half ended to make it

5-0 at the break.

Gyulay began the second half with a header from a corner kick and

Harbor Day added a late goal for the final 7-0 score.

“We always hope to win,” Harbor Day Coach Bob Gorab said. “We want

to win our pool and get a rematch with Our Lady Queen of Angels,

[which eliminated Harbor Day from the semifinals last year].”

Goaltender Blake Norton made several spectacular saves for the

Tritons, including one on a first-half corner and two point-blank

second-half shots.

“I thought their goalie had some great saves,” Rob Case said.

“There were a couple [shots] I thought were going in but he came out

of nowhere to make the save.”