Newport Harbor girls’ soccer strikes early, often in Battle of the Bay win
Justin Schroeder has never lost a Battle of the Bay match since being hired as the Newport Harbor High girls’ soccer coach in 2016.
“We don’t take that for granted here,” he said. “It’s tough to win games in the Sunset Conference, it’s tough to win games against your rival. We’ve just been fortunate to be on the right side of it.”
On Thursday night, the final result presented itself early enough.
The Sailors blitzed rival Corona del Mar with four goals in the first half, on their way to a 5-1 victory at Davidson Field.
Junior Abbi Clapp scored twice for Newport Harbor, which improved to 10-4-1 after winning the conference crossover match. Freshman Mia Knox, junior Sadie Hoch and senior Kate Kubiak added goals for the winners.
The Sailors are 6-0-4 in their last 10 meetings with Corona del Mar, a run that slightly predates Schroeder’s tenure.
Knox got the scoring started in the third minute, running diagonally left to right through the box before buying a shot into the upper part of the net to put the Sea Kings (8-3-1) in an early hole.
“She’s definitely our Micro Machine,” Schroeder said of Knox, who may be diminutive in stature but is very talented on the ball. “The last couple of weeks, she’s really been coming on. She’s getting comfortable in the high school game and what we’re doing. You saw it right away. It’s been coming for the last couple of weeks, that level of play.”
The Sailors added a goal in the 20th minute, when junior Bridget Taketa played the ball forward to Clapp in the right side of the box. CdM goalkeeper Kellie Brown charged, but Clapp was able to get the quick shot off and into the back of the net.
A minute later, Clapp struck again, off a cross from Knox. Her teammates tried setting her up for the hat trick a few times after that, like Hoch achieved in last year’s Battle of the Bay match, but she settled for the two scores.
“I was really close, but maybe next year,” Clapp said with a smile after the match. “I’ve got one more year … This is one of my favorite games of the year, and I’m so happy I played well. Our whole team played good. It was a good turnout, too, so it was really fun.”
Hoch, a University of Texas commit, got a relatively easy goal a few minutes before halftime, as the ball popped to her open right in front of the goal. Kubiak, bound for the University of Oregon, buried the Sailors’ fifth goal into the left corner from 30 yards out in the 57th minute.
The only thing preventing the clean slate was when CdM junior Bella Thomas fought to get possession in the box and score in the 66th minute.
“It’s bittersweet, you know, because this is our last year playing,” Newport Harbor senior defender Camryn Netzer said. “I just wanted us all to get out there and enjoy it for us seniors. Defense, we did great. We had our outside backs coming up and going inside and getting services, so it was good to see that. I know that we’re in good hands next year.”
Netzer and Ole Miss-bound senior center back Ally Thomas are two of the team’s four-year varsity players this year, along with Sammy Forbath. The Sailors do have a robust senior class overall with nine players.
Sophomore Cooper Dick made four saves for the Sailors, before turning the goalkeeping duties over to juniors Audrey Burns and Maia Helmar late. All three, along with Kubiak, were key parts of Newport Harbor’s flag football team this fall, which finished the season as the inaugural Sunset League champion and ranked No. 1 in the country by MaxPreps.com.
“They’re just athletic, that’s what our kids are,” Schroeder said. “It is cool that they found their camaraderie early. When you start off the year winning games in a different sport, it carries over to whatever is next.”
CdM coach Bryan Middleton said junior left back Jenna Hannum was his team’s player of the match, while junior midfielder Kai Tsakiris was always around the ball and earned several free kicks.
“We learned from the mistakes from the first half and played a much better second half,” Middleton said. “This game is a great learning experience for us to go into league … This being the last year of the Wave League, we’re going to give it our all against Edison, Fountain Valley and Laguna Beach.”
Newport Harbor plays at Laguna Beach on Saturday at 2 p.m. in another crossover match, while CdM hosts Marina at the same time.
League play begins next week, with the Sailors starting their Surf League campaign at Marina on Tuesday and the Sea Kings hosting Fountain Valley to begin the Wave League.
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