Sailors deal payback

IRVINE — The last time we left the Newport Harbor High and El Toro boys’ water polo rivalry, the Sailors were dominating overtime for a win in the South Coast Tournament championship game in September.

Nearly two months later, Newport Harbor came out like that game had never really ended.

The Sailors jumped out to a 5-1 lead and held on to win, 9-8, in a CIF Southern Section Division I semifinal Wednesday night at Irvine High.

Newport Harbor will play Northwood on Saturday night at 7 in the Division I championship game, also at Irvine High. The Sailors will be going for their first CIF championship since 2000.

Not hard for Newport Harbor to be fired up against El Toro, a rival it has also played in the CIF playoffs each of the last three years. It was the Chargers who knocked out the Tars last year in the Division I semifinals on their way to the championship.

But this year, Newport Harbor firmly believes it has the better team. The whole emphasis, in fact, has been on that very word: team.

Senior captain Clinton Jorth, who had two goals, three assists and three steals, used the word again Wednesday night after beating El Toro.

It was Jorth who suffered multiple facial fractures in a nonleague game against El Toro two years ago, prematurely ending his sophomore season. A long time ago now, but there’s still no love lost when the teams play.

“We know we’re a better team,” Jorth said. “They definitely have individuals, but we’re the better team. We didn’t want a couple individuals coming out and beating our close-bonded team. We all just rallied together, got super-fired up and just came back for vengeance for last year.”

The White brothers, Spencer and Griffin, are the pretty impressive individuals for El Toro (26-5). Wednesday night, Spencer (four goals) and Griffin (three) combined to score all but one of El Toro’s goals.

By comparison, Newport Harbor (26-3) had six players find the back of the net.

Sophomore two-meter player Matt Russell had two of those on back-handed moves from two meters, the latter one giving the Sailors the 5-1 lead with 2 minutes, 55 seconds left in the first half.

Fellow two-meter player David Linden also scored for the Sailors, who got exactly the game they needed from the set position.

“Before the game, [assistant coach] Corey Delahunt said, ‘Hey, I think this game is going to be revolving around two meters,’ ” Russell said. “Me and Dave, we looked at each other and we said, ‘We can handle it. We can handle it.’

“I was solely focused on putting the ball in the goal or getting an ejection, just keeping us in control of the game. If we could control this game, I had a definite feeling they would break down, which they did.”

Linden, Brandon Parole and Colin McKibbin all scored in the first quarter to stake the Sailors to a 3-0 lead. And, after Andy Hayes scored from eight meters with the shot clock running down, Newport Harbor still carried a 7-4 lead into the fourth quarter.

“We can score from the perimeter, we can score from set, we can score from drives,” Jorth said. “We can score everywhere, so it’s super-hard to play against us, I think. If you take one thing away, we’ll score another way.”

Jorth scored a one-on-nobody goal with 2:28 left in the game to put the lead at 9-6. But El Toro’s Ryan Freerks scored a rebound goal with 1:05 left to bring the Chargers within two. Then, with under 20 seconds left, the Sailors lost the ball at mid-pool.

Spencer White scored an easy counterattack goal with nine seconds left, then Newport Harbor called a timeout.

“It was definitely scary at the end,” Sailors Coach Jason Lynch said. “I wanted to make sure we got the ball into the right people’s hands, but that probably was a bad timeout call. It let them come right into our half.”

Pressure from Griffin White on Newport goalie Myles Christian made the ball touch the end line, giving El Toro the ball back with just seconds to go. After a corner throw, the ball went out of bounds again, giving El Toro one last shot with 0.43 seconds left.

Enough time for Lakers guard Derek Fisher to defeat San Antonio, but not enough time for El Toro. As soon as the last corner throw was completed to Spencer White, the final horn sounded before a shot could be taken.

“My heart was definitely racing,” Christian said. “I’m not used to being pressed up like that, and I probably shouldn’t have swam right into the lane line. But I’m glad we shut them down in those crucial moments ... It’s a huge win for us. There’s definitely some bad blood there, and we didn’t want them playing in the finals again. We believe we’re a better team.”

Christian quickly corrected himself.

“I know we’re a better team,” he said.

Like it always has been, the emphasis was again on “team.”

CIF Southern Section

Division I playoffs

Semifinal

Newport Harbor 9, El Toro 8

SCORE BY QUARTERS

NH – McKibbin 2, Jorth 2, Russell 2, Parole 1, Hayes 1, Linden 1. Saves – Christian 6.

ET – S. White 4, G. White 3, Freerks 1. Saves – O’ Connell 10.

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or by e-mail at matthew.szabo@latimes.com.