Late surge lifts Oilers

In a tense battle between neighboring rivals Oct. 3, it was Huntington Beach that came away with a 12-6 victory against Edison in a Sunset League boys’ water polo match.

The teams were deadlocked at 6 less than a minute into the second half, but that’s when the game shifted gears before a standing-room-only crowd at the Ocean View High pool.

Huntington went into the lead for good on a lob shot into the right corner of the Edison cage by junior attacker Dillon Morely. The goal put the Oilers up, 7-6, and it came nearly three minutes after Edison sophomore defender Dane Estrella netted a goal to tie the score.

Oilers goalie Alex Wolf recorded 21 saves in a performance Huntington Coach Brian Anderson said was “phenomenal.”

“He stopped six of their eight man exclusion advantages, which is unbelievable,” Anderson said. “We, on the other hand, were four of seven in man-up situations, and that was the ballgame. We worked a ton on those situations at practice.

“At the beginning of the game, we were not playing well on defense. Edison has really good center-forward play, and they were scoring on us. We adjusted our defense and really locked down on them in the second half.”

Morely and Jovan Jeremic both scored four goals for Huntington and led all scorers. Troy Oates scored three goals and Justin Harrison scored twice for Edison.

“We had a great first half, and a great start to the second half, but then we got away from our game,” Edison Coach Diggy Riley said. “Huntington forced us to shoot from the outside in the second half, and we struggled.”

Edison bounced back from the loss to knock off host La Habra, the seventh-ranked team in CIF Southern Section Division 4, 13-6, on Friday.

Harrison led all scorers with eight goals.

Huntington played a nonleague game Saturday in La Jolla against The Bishop’s and fell, 12-10. Matt Cook scored two goals and drew three exclusions for Huntington, and Anderson said that freshmen Elias Lule and James Vlachonassios played “stellar defense.”

In another Sunset League opener Oct. 3, Fountain Valley downed Marina, 11-2, in the first game of a league triple header at Ocean View. Dalton Kenefick scored three goals and Connor Reilly, Reza Alli, Chris Goldsby and Erik Lindsey each scored twice for the Barons. Logan Montgomery scored both Marina goals.

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Field Hockey

Huntington Beach ran its Sunset League record to 5-0 Tuesday by defeating Marina, 4-0. Junior Nicola Taglieri scored two goals, Kayla Wigney scored once and had an assist, Kristi Strangeland scored once, and Marina Elmore and Abby Masters each had an assist.

In a key league clash Oct. 4 at Huntington, the Oilers handed rival Newport Harbor a 3-1 defeat at Miller Field. Wigney scored twice and Elmore scored on a penalty stroke. Huntington goalie Brittany Cristini had two saves to thwart the Sailors.

michael.sciacca@latimes.com

Twitter: @MikeSciacca