Sailors spread wealth

COSTA MESA — The Newport Harbor High field hockey team has plenty of weapons.

The Sailors were happy to show that to visiting Santa Ana on Tuesday.

Six different Newport players scored goals, leading Newport Harbor to a 6-0 win at Harper Community Center in Sunset League play.

Rachel Foster, Robin Ibbetson, Katie Kay, Amanda Shaw, Katy Storch and Clea O’Kieffe all found the back of the net, helping Newport Harbor improve its record to 16-3-3, 4-1 in league.

Coach Devon Kelly said the varied attack was largely brought together by teamwork.

“Their communication was much, much better than it’s been all season, and that helped,” Kelly said. “It was a heavily offensive game, but they never let up and stayed tough.”

Santa Ana (1-4 in league) gave up eight penalty corners to Newport Harbor in the first eight minutes of the game.

But it remained scoreless until a little over 21 minutes remained in the first half. That’s when Kyleigh Harrison’s bouncing ball in front of the net was shot in by Foster.

“Corners are hard to score on,” Shaw said. “They seem easy, but they’re not. It was really a relief to finally score.”

Less than two minutes later, Kay’s pass from the right side found Ibbetson in front, and the senior scored for a 2-0, Sailors’ lead.

Newport Harbor added to its lead with under a minute before halftime, when Kay scored on a rebound of Samantha Kuhns’ initial shot.

“We just talked really well today, and we connected our passes really well today,” Kay said.

Once the Sailors found the back of the net the first time, the game became easier, Foster said.

“It’s a domino effect,” she said. “We get going, and everyone gets pumped.”

Newport stretched its lead six minutes into the second half, when Shaw scored on a long shot off Foster’s corner.

Three minutes later, Foster’s free shot found the stick of Storch, who quickly redirected it into the corner of the net for a 5-0 Newport Harbor lead.

Even when Kelly switched up the positions, Newport Harbor remained aggressive.

Clea O’Kieffe, who usually plays defense for the Sailors, scored with 1:30 left in the game on crisp passes from Hayley Ayres and Shannon Rohan.

Santa Ana goalie Sandra Escoto made 17 saves in the game, while Newport Harbor goalie Jessica Pizarek was relegated to zero saves. Pizarek didn’t even face a shot on goal.

Newport Harbor also produced 19 penalty corners in the game, including 12 in the first half. However, just two of its goals came off a corner.

“That’s a real offensive play, a corner,” Kelly said. “You should manage to either score off it, or draw another corner. We’ll be working on that in practice [today].”

Newport Harbor now prepares for a key league game on Thursday, when the Sailors play host to Bonita.

“I told them to play hard in this game to prepare for that game,” Kelly said. “We wanted to keep our stick skills good and keep the level of play high.”

Bonita is the only team that has beaten Newport Harbor in league.

However, the Sailors beat the Bearcats twice on the way to winning the Orange County Invitational in September.

“They’re really aggressive, so we need to keep our cool and talk a lot to each other,” Foster said.

Storch said Tuesday’s win should help Newport Harbor on Thursday.

“If we play our own game and do what we did [against Santa Ana], we’ll be fine,” Storch said.