Crushers battle to end

It was a big season for the AYSO Region 55 girls’ Under 10 Crushers. The Crushers advanced to the Area K championship game Friday before falling to the Region 56 Surf City All-Stars, 3-0, in the battle for Under-10 supremacy.

The Crushers had gone 5-0 throughout the tournament to get to the final. They had also beaten Surf City, 3-1, in an earlier game two weeks prior.

Area K covers west Orange County and the tournament hosted all-stars from all four Huntington Beach regions, as well as Fountain Valley, Westminster, Long Beach, Los Altos and South Garden Grove.

The Huntington Beach Region 56 Teal Turbo Turtles took second place in the Section 11 AYSO tournament last weekend. On Saturday, the Turtles opened with a 1-1 tie against neighboring Costa Mesa. They fell behind in the first half on a long-distance strike by the Costa Mesa midfielder, but the defense, led by Makena Chock, Megan Deats and Genna Swanson, turned the tide and provided Taylor Briscoe with the opportunity she needed to equalize.

In a physical, hard-fought afternoon match, Briscoe scored again and goalkeepers Isabel Hadley and Kylie Forgiarini combined for a shutout of Bonita (San Diego).

The Turtles went into the Sunday morning game with Cypress needing a win to go through, and a first half goal by Malia Walencewicz gave them hope. Strong midfield play from Amanda Schrader and Carly Convery kept the balance of play in the Cypress half, and when Sarah Horner touched home the second goal with three minutes to go, the Turtles secured themselves a place in the final against Wilmington.

In the final, despite an early goal from Walencewicz, the Turtles (18-2-1) were unable to find the back of the net again and Wilmington emerged with a 3-1 win.

The Huntington Beach Water Polo Club had a successful weekend at the WinterFest Water Polo Tournament 2010, highlighted by a first-place finish by the boys’ 16-Under “A” team. In addition to the championship title won by the boys’ 16 “A” team, the boys’ 14-U “B” team took third place in its division, the girls’ 14-U team placed eighth in its division — the best performance to date by the team, HBWPC Director Alex Alvarez said — and the boys’ 18U team, coached by Sasa Branisavljevic, placed ninth.

The WinterFest tournament was played at several locations in Orange County and South Los Angeles County.

The boys’ 16U team went 4-1 in five games to take the division title. Huntington defeated Trojan (6-2) and Chino Hills Area Water Polo (12-8), lost to San Diego Shores (5-4), bounced back to edge Lamorinda (7-6) and then defeated SET (Saddleback and El Toro), 6-5, in the division final at Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base.

John Lovat led all Huntington scorers with 10 goals. A sophomore at Huntington Beach High School, Lovat was an All-Sea View League first-team selection this year during the fall 2009 season.

Jameson Shively was second in scoring for Huntington with eight goals, but he paced the team with strong defense and counter-attack.

“Every single person on our team played a significant role in our preparation for this club championship,” Coach Brian Anderson said. “We definitely used our strengths to our advantage in our defense and counter-attack capabilities. Our guys understood the concepts of communication and team defense, which set the tone for each of our games for this tournament.

“We overcame a 0-3 score deficit in our semifinal game against Lamorinda to win (7-6) because we stuck to our gameplan and wore down the opponent. If we had let Lamorinda score one more goal, we would have been knocked out of the championship game because of our one loss in the tournament to San Diego Shores.

“We only build from here. Its fun to win WinterFest, but we need to improve in order to compete in the National Junior Olympic Championships coming this summer in late July.”

The Huntington boys’ 18U team dropped its first game but came on strong to win its final two games, Branisavljevic said. Huntington was led by Huntington Beach High players Michael Bailey, Jordan Lisnock and Tiki Toplak and Edison High player John Mroch.

— Mike Sciacca