Sailors in tough situation

NEWPORT BEACH — Because of one loss, 20 minutes have suddenly become a lifeline for Newport Harbor High’s postseason hopes.

The Sailors’ girls’ soccer team fell, 3-2, to Marina Thursday night, which now puts even more emphasis on a make-up overtime the Sailors will play Jan. 24 at Esperanza.

Los Alamitos, ranked first in CIF Southern Section Division I, and No. 3 Esperanza are thought to be sure bets for the top two playoff spots in the Sunset League, leaving Marina, Newport Harbor, Edison, and Fountain Valley to battle it out for the third berth.

Newport Harbor and Esperanza tied, 2-2, in a Jan. 3 match, but league rules stipulate the teams play two 10-minute periods of overtime, which they failed to do.

Now, the Sailors are hoping for not just one, but two wins on Jan. 24 to keep them in the hunt for at least a playoff berth. The teams will play the overtime first, then play a regular scheduled league game afterward.

“If we could win both games ... which is going to be a tall order — it’s going to be a monster effort physically — then we’ll come away with six points [in the standings],” Newport Harbor Coach Larry Draluck said. “That would vault us back in there, but obviously, Marina’s going to be sitting good with that also.”

Newport Harbor (5-4-7, 1-2-2 in league) was sitting well for most of the first half, and led, 2-1, at the break, but the Sailors got themselves in trouble later as Marina (2-3 in league) won the battle on corner kicks and throw-ins. The Vikings scored their final two goals in heavy traffic around the box.

Strong defense, particularly toward the end of the game, helped seal the win for the Vikings as Newport Harbor scrambled desperately for a tying goal.

“We know how chaotic it can get when there’s a corner kick and it doesn’t get cleared out, so we worked on that quite consistently through almost the whole season,” Marina Coach Mike Greco said. “It’s just how to handle the chaos both offensively and defensively. It paid off defensively too in the last 10 minutes when they kept on coming down.”

Marina senior Nikki Luby got possession of senior Brooke Thompson’s throw-in to set up the first of two goals for senior striker Sara Foley two minutes into the second half.

Foley scored again, midway through the second half on a rebound. Junior Julia Redmond had a corner kick, which Newport Harbor freshman goalkeeper Sydney King punched out of the way. When it fell, Foley was able to just boot it in for the game-winning goal.

“This is huge for us,” Greco said. “We didn’t have a good start to league and we refocused our goals and we have certain games we need to win, and this was one of them. This was probably our biggest game of the season after we redefined our goals.”

Newport Harbor junior Lauren Devoy scored the Sailors’ two goals, the first on an assist from sophomore Brianna Schwartz. The second was an unassisted goal, and Devoy shot from about 25 yards out after getting the ball from senior Carly Ruiz.

“We never really had good rhythm in the game and we mostly scrambled out there,” Draluck said. “To our credit, our forwards did a pretty good job and they put a couple goals away somehow on counterattacks. We’re not really a counterattacking team but [Marina] was so aggressive defending, they left themselves vulnerable and we scored a couple of goals.”

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or at soraya.mcdonald@latimes.com.