Sea Kings bright under lights

Chris Yemma

It wasn’t under the Friday night lights, but Wednesday night’s Battle

of the Bay boys soccer game under the lights of the Orange Coast

College football stadium proved to be just as intense.

Corona del Mar High scored two girls in the first half and held on

through a late Newport Harbor rally to win, 2-1, and gained a full

steam of momentum entering Pacific Coast League play.

The Sea Kings (5-4-2), a team that started the season 0-2-2, won

the next four games and then dropped two Dec. 30 in the West Coast

Classic, earned a huge win over their biggest rival to claim back the

coveted bell that each Back Bay team holds in great esteem.

As soon as the referee’s final whistle blew Wednesday night, the

CdM boys stormed the field and ran clear across to the Newport bench,

grabbed the bell and paraded it back to their sideline.

“It’s huge man,” said junior Brett Crowley, who tapped in CdM’s

second goal to provide a cushion for the Sea Kings.

“I’m a football player and we lost [the bell] then in a

heartbreaker, and since that game [Sept. 23] I’ve been aching to get

back at these guys.”

CdM gained some season momentum with the win that it will take

into Friday’s league opener against visiting Tesoro. And winning

against Newport Harbor (1-5-2) just before entering league has the

Sea Kings ready to start rolling.

“This was as important as any game for us,” CdM Coach Pat

Callaghan said. “We always try to take it real seriously.

“Last year we were crushed when we lost -- we felt like we were a

quality team last year and had a great chance to win this game, but

they basically took it to us.”

Not this time, though.

In the 17th minute of the game, senior captain Grant Almquist

lofted a penalty kick across Newport’s danger zone that bounced off a

couple of players before junior Kyle Schnuekluth whacked it in.

The 38th minute was just about doomsday for the Sailors, as

Crowley took a pass and sprinted down the left side of the field,

tapping a grounder just past Newport goalie Carson Hedrick to give

the Sea Kings a 2-0 cushion.

That would have been the final score, but the Sailors mustered a

last-second goal by senior Kevin Shearer in the 80th minute. What the

Sailors really needed at that point, though, was a two-goal play.

About 30 seconds after the goal, the final whistle was blown and the

Sea Kings surged off the bench, basking in the glory of reclaiming

the bell.

“It’s a real emotional-type thing,” Callaghan said. “It was an

emotionally hard-fought game and we found a way to scrap that first

goal, scored a great second goal and held on.”

For Newport Harbor, it was another loss in a season where the

Sailors have one win in eight games. It was also a learning

experience that Coach Ryan Hernandez hopes the younger players will

remember.

“The most important thing for us right now is for the younger kids

to remember what this feels like,” Hernandez said. “We lost a few

years ago and the kids wanted to win it back so bad, so they did the

next year.

“Sometimes you forget what it’s like to lose the [bell] and the

only way to replenish that loss is to do good in league.”

The Sailors open Sea View League play Friday at Foothill at 3

p.m., while the Sea Kings open league Friday hosting Tesoro at 3 p.m.