No real grass, no problem for Sailors

HUNTINGTON BEACH — “Change” is a big word in the upcoming presidential election, but it could be said the Newport Harbor High field hockey team is more old-school.

The Sailors at least partly adhere to the policies of President Theodore Roosevelt in the early 1900s — they usually try to carry a big stick.

But, on Wednesday in their Sunset League opener at Edison, Newport Harbor had to carry a, well, smaller stick on the Chargers’ fast artificial turf. And what impressed Coach Devon Kelly was that her defending league champions showed they were up to the challenge in their 4-0 victory.

“We don’t practice on this kind of field,” Kelly said. “For us to come up and play really good hockey against a very well-coached team, I’m very happy with their play today.”

Junior forward Claire Ramser, who had a goal and an assist, said the Sailors (4-0-2, 1-0 in league) wanted to do well against rival Edison (1-3-2, 0-1). She said she considered the game their “Battle of the Bay,” since rival Corona del Mar doesn’t have a field hockey team.

And it’s not like Newport Harbor hasn’t played on turf before.

“When we do play on it, we take advantage of it,” Ramser said. “We do close balls to the stick, and maintain our speed and make sure the ball gets on a stick. Before practice, we do five-man passing, where it’s just short passes that are quick and one-touch. Devon has us do that, and that helps a ton. We just make sure we don’t use as big a stick as we normally would.”

Junior Lauren Chandler opened the scoring 16 minutes into the game, after a corner from junior Claire Layton. Five minutes later, Ramser’s hard shot from the right side was deflected in by junior midfielder Caroline Hardenbergh, giving Newport Harbor a 2-0 halftime lead.

Senior forward Kylie Sheppard and Ramser added goals in the second half, on assists from senior captain Shannon Rohan. The other senior captain, Liz Tennyson, helped Rohan dictate play in the midfield area.

Defensively, a unit led by seniors Maggie Bernay and Megan Hosseini, as well as junior Lauren Rojas, helped shut the Chargers down. Newport Harbor goalies Jessica Bass (first half) and Sydney King (second half) didn’t have to make a save the entire game.

“In the second half we pretty much just shut them down, and we didn’t really have anything to do back there,” Bernay said. “Sometimes that’s harder, because when it does come back at you, you’re not prepared. But, I think we played really well. It’s good to win the first league game.”