Boys’ Water Polo: Sailors a goal short

The Newport Harbor High boys’ water polo team was right there Saturday night against top-seeded Los Angeles Loyola in the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs.

In fact, the Sailors could have argued that they should have forced overtime.

Instead, the Cubs advanced by the narrowest of margins, 12-11, at Newport Harbor High. Loyola will play No. 4-seeded Orange Lutheran in the Division 1 semifinals at Wednesday night.

The season ended for the Sailors (19-9), but not without showing a lot of heart. They led just once in Saturday’s game, when senior Connor Turnbow-Lindenstadt scored on the team’s opening possession. But, down 8-5 at halftime and 10-8 entering the fourth quarter, Newport Harbor kept battling back.

The Sailors tied the game in the final quarter on a pair of scores by junior Ryan Brosnan. First, he took the pass from Turnbow-Lindenstadt and scored with 5:05 remaining in the fourth. Thirty-nine seconds later, Brosnan took the pass from senior Nic Rimlinger and scored from six meters out, and suddenly it was tied at 10-10.

“I really thought it was a testament to all of our work this season, and how we’ve been trying to get mentally stronger,” said Brosnan’s older brother, Newport senior co-captain Cole Brosnan. “I think last year, if we saw a three-goal lead at half we really would have rolled away, but this year’s different. We have really increased intensity and want to fight, want to win.”

Loyola (23-6) was fortunate to retake the lead. After Henry Chase’s shot from the outside hit off the right post, the ball came right back to Chase. Sophomore Stefan Vavic would end up scoring from in close, giving Loyola an 11-10 advantage. But Rimlinger answered from five meters, tying the score again with 3:18 to play.

Loyola had a response. Vavic passed to his older brother, Marko. He flipped in his fourth goal with 1:58 left, and it ended up being the game-winner.

Newport Harbor did try to draw even again, on the power play. But freshman Makoto Kenney had his goal disallowed with 1:23 to play. After the referees huddled together and talked to the coaches, Newport Harbor had to restart its six-on-five advantage. This time, Loyola’s Miles O’Brien Schridde (four goals) came up with the field block at the end of the possession.

“The explanation I got was that it was a desk error,” Newport Harbor Coach Ross Sinclair said of the disallowed goal. “Any desk error, you replay it ... tough break. I don’t know if that’s the game though, right there. There’s a lot of moments throughout the game. But no, I thought we played really, really well. I’d say this was close to one of our best games we’ve ever played. That’s obviously a positive. I don’t think any kid went in there and didn’t put their heart and soul into that game, and their heart and soul into the last two days of preparation. That was a big step, moving forward.”

Newport Harbor had two chances in the final minute. Turnbow-Lindenstadt got a steal, but Loyola got possession back on a ball-under call. The second chance came after Sailors junior goalie Max Sandberg made his 12th save with 14 seconds left. Sinclair called timeout to set up a play.

Kenney was fouled outside of five meters, but his shot with five seconds left was handled by Cubs goalie Randy Mora. Loyola was on its way to knocking out a Back Bay team in the Division 1 quarterfinals for the second straight year, after beating Corona del Mar in this round in 2015.

Ryan Brosnan led the Sailors with three goals, while Cole Brosnan, Turnbow-Lindenstadt and Jackson Westerman had two each. Rimlinger had two assists for the Sailors while Cole Brosnan, Turnbow-Lindenstadt, Sandberg and junior Jason Grew added one each.

Cole Brosnan used the word “successful” when asked to describe the Sailors’ season. In his three years on varsity, the win total has gone up every year.

“We’re on track again,” he said.