Sailors win for Lunde

NEWPORT BEACH — As the championship game matchup of the Gray Lunde Memorial Tournament became known, the Newport Harbor High boys’ frosh-soph water polo team assuredly realized all that was on the line.

There was the Back Bay rivalry matchup with Corona del Mar for the title and also a chance to own the season series. And, as always, the Sailors wanted to win the tournament that is held in honor of the late Gray Lunde, who died of congenital heart failure on the pool deck his freshman year at Newport Harbor in 1995.

For the second straight year, the Sailors won the Gray Lunde tournament, with an 8-2 win over the Sea Kings at Newport Harbor High on Saturday. Newport Harbor has won the tourney title four out of the last five years.

“We always want to make a good showing at this tournament,” Harbor Coach Brian Melstrom said. “We’re playing for the Lundes. We’re playing for Gray.”

Newport Harbor reached the final with dominating wins over Santa Margarita, 18-0, and Huntington Beach, 6-2, on Friday, and a semifinal rout of Riverside Poly, 12-3, on Saturday.

That set Newport up for its fourth showdown with the Sea Kings this year. The Sailors took the season series, 3-1.

The match opened with physical defensive play on both sides, and the first period ended scoreless.

Melstrom called timeout with 2:14 left in the second period, and Dane Sequeira scored 13 seconds later, putting the Sailors up, 1-0.

Newport struck again. Blake Kelly, who scored three goals, found the back of the cage on a counterattack with 46 seconds left, making it, 2-0. Thirty seconds later, Jack Yeager broke free on another counterattack for a 3-0 lead.

“This program thrives on its counterattack,” said Melstrom. “Our defense creates our offense.”

Trailing, 3-0, going into the third period, the two teams switched ends, and CdM appeared frustrated by Newport’s late-second-period onslaught.

The Sailors didn’t let up in the third. Kristopher Craib scored 36 seconds in, and just like that it was, 4-0.

Newport’s defense made the lead stand up. With four minutes left, CdM had three chances to score on one possession, but the Sailors defense stymied the Sea Kings with a deflection and two saves by goalie Ikaika Sarme.

“I couldn’t have done it without our defense,” Sarme said. “We did a good job marking all weekend.”

Yeager scored his second goal of the game with 1:49 left in the third to make it 5-0. The game appeared to be over.

But CdM scored two goals in the final 38 seconds of the period to gain momentum heading into the fourth.

But Kelly, who will join varsity for the CIF Southern Section Division I playoffs, scored twice in the final quarter to secure the win.

After the game, the team presented Mrs. Lunde with flowers.

“It’s an honor for me to coach these boys,” Melstrom said. “In this tournament, we always try to keep in mind that we’re playing for a bigger cause, rather than individual glory.”