Boys’ Water Polo: Foothill trounces young Sailors
SANTA ANA — Foothill High boys’ water polo, the defending CIF Southern Section Division 2 champion, went against an inexperienced Newport Harbor team with no senior field players Tuesday.
Foothill Coach Jim Brumm, in his 29th year, usually saw the mismatches the other way early in his career.
“I couldn’t even tell you how long it took for me to coach a team to beat Newport,” Brumm said after his team posted a 15-5 win at the Knights’ pool. “That was a big deal [against] Coach [Bill] Barnett; every guy’s an Olympian, and [Jason Lynch’s] teams. It’s a great program, and they’re going to be back. Ross [Sinclair] is going to do a great job with that team. They’re going to be fine.”
Times have changed. Barnett retired from coaching in February. Lynch, who coached Sinclair when he played for the Sailors in the early 2000s, is now an assistant coach for Brumm at Foothill.
And it was the Knights (3-0), again top-ranked in Division 2, who stayed undefeated early in the season by beating the Sailors (3-5), ranked No. 7 in Division 1.
Foothill senior Chas Hornecker outscored the Sailors by himself, netting six goals. His younger brother JJ Hornecker was one of four players, also including Mike Miller, Zane Scott and Griffin Gaughran, to net two goals each for the Knights.
Junior goalie Arash Izadmanesh made eight saves for Foothill, which took an 8-2 halftime lead.
“All in all, they did a nice job,” Brumm said. “I thought they attacked it like a big game, like it was. It was Foothill vs. Newport. It’s always a big game when you play Newport Harbor.”
Junior co-captain and lefty Cole Brosnan had two goals for the Sailors, who are coming off an eighth-place finish at the Santa Barbara Invitational over the weekend.
Foothill took a 3-0 lead late in the first quarter, prompting Sinclair to use a timeout, but then Brosnan tried to bring the Sailors back. He assisted Newport junior Ryan Hurst, who struck from six meters. Then Brosnan scored from the right side to cut the lead to 3-2 with 44 seconds left in the first quarter.
Chas Hornecker had the answer, driving inside and scoring on the Knights’ next possession. He then scored two more goals in the first two minutes of the second quarter. The Sailors, meanwhile, were in a drought of more than 12 minutes until sophomore Jason Grew struck in transition with 2:19 left in the third quarter.
“They’re the reigning Division 2 champs for a reason,” Sinclair said of the Knights. “All aspects of the game, we have to improve on. For us, a lot of it’s just experience. Games like that are rough because it gets demoralizing for some of the younger guys, and some of the older guys lose patience and get frustrated. For us, we get beat down and we stop competing, which is the sign of a young team, immature team.
“For this season, we’re young and behind. For the future, we’re doing just fine. It’s just a big learning curve for a lot of these guys.”
Junior Ben Toffel also scored for Newport Harbor, and senior goalie Joe Ferraro made 11 saves. Sophomores John Rankin and Jackson Westerman added one steal each, and junior co-captain Nic Rimlinger had an assist and an exclusion drawn.
The season is young, but besides Foothill, the Sailors also have already played three of the other teams ranked in the top 10 in Division 1. They lost to No. 2 Mater Dei, 18-3, and No. 6 Orange Lutheran, 13-4, in Santa Barbara. They also lost a close match to Dana Hills, ranked No. 2 in Division 2, 9-7.
“[These games are] a great opportunity for us, because we still have years to come,” Brosnan said. “It’s mostly sophomores and juniors on this team. Next year, we can put together a great season, hopefully.”
Newport Harbor plays at The Bishop’s School of La Jolla on Saturday at noon.
Twitter: @mjszabo
