Sailors respond, win

LAKE FOREST — The Newport Harbor and El Toro high school boys’ water polo programs have a lot of history, with a total of 19 CIF Southern Section titles between them.

Former longtime El Toro Coach Don Stoll took in Saturday’s nonleague match between the two schools. Stoll sat in the shade on the Chargers’ pool deck, and Newport Harbor Coach Ross Sinclair made sure to come over and visit with him at halftime.

The Chargers’ current coach, former UCLA standout Justin Johnson, wasn’t as calm as Stoll in the second quarter. He called timeout before pleading with his players.

“They’re super-physical with you guys,” Johnson said. “So what do you do? You drive! You don’t just sit there.”

El Toro’s players listened after halftime, erasing a four-goal deficit. But Newport Harbor finished strong to earn a key 11-9 victory.

Senior co-captain Cole Brosnan and senior Connor Turnbow-Lindenstadt each had three goals and three steals to lead Newport Harbor (11-5), which is ranked No. 7 in CIF Southern Section Division 1. El Toro (14-7) is ranked No. 9.

The Sailors scored five goals in the second quarter and took a 7-3 lead into halftime. But it quickly evaporated in the third.

El Toro senior co-captain Chad Nelson scored after a strong drive, then he added a counterattack goal. The home team then got a power-play goal from senior Jack Leighton and a strike from senior Trent Rivers at center, and suddenly the score was tied at 7-7 with 1:23 remaining in the third quarter.

Newport Harbor, to its credit, quickly steadied itself. Freshman Makoto Kenney made a nice pass inside to junior center Jackson Westerman for a goal, then the lefty Brosnan added a six-on-five goal to give the Sailors a 9-7 lead headed into the fourth quarter.

The margin never got closer than two goals in the final seven minutes. But Sinclair acknowledged after the game that his team will have to play better on Wednesday, when they play host to Huntington Beach at 5 p.m. in a game that will more than likely decide the Sunset League title.

“We’re just not making the smartest decisions at times, and we get careless,” Sinclair said. “Nothing against El Toro, but I thought a lot of [the Chargers’ third-quarter rally] was us getting careless and thinking the game was over. They played hard, and they were able to rattle us a bit, but in the end that should never happen. We’ve got to have some better leadership out there, and more control and poise.

“We get a lead and we get careless and complacent, or we’re down and then we suddenly start playing hard. We need to always play hard, all four quarters. We’ve got to show a little bit more heart and a little bit more urgency all the time, regardless of the score. It’s something we’re trying to work on program-wide.”

Westerman had two goals for the Sailors. The second one was big, on a backhand with 3:52 left after getting fouled outside of five meters. It pushed the Newport Harbor lead back to three goals, at 11-8, before El Toro’s Rivers scored the game’s final goal with 30 seconds remaining.

Junior Jason Grew, sophomore Charlie Covina and Kenney added one goal each for the Sailors. Junior goalie Max Sandberg made seven saves.

Junior John Rankin added three steals for Newport Harbor, which avoided a loss that would have been damaging in terms of the Division 1 rankings.

“We didn’t come out as hard as we wanted to [in the third quarter],” Brosnan said. “We knew they were going to come out hard, and I guess we just weren’t ready. But in the end, we weathered the storm and figured it out, ended up winning by two. In the fourth quarter, we had to be more intense and just match their physicality.”

Leighton had three goals, four assists and three steals for El Toro. Nelson and Rivers also scored three goals each.

Newport Harbor now has two days of practice to get ready for Huntington Beach, which is ranked No. 3 in Division 1 and has won the last two Sunset League titles. The Oilers also won the North vs. South Challenge tournament on Saturday night, beating Mater Dei, 11-6, in the championship game.

“It’s a Division 1 rivalry,” Brosnan said of beating the Chargers. “There’s a long history with El Toro, so it’s a big win for us. We just need to take it into Wednesday ... it’s going to be a big game.”