Hewko Sets Up Friars for Victory

The Anaheim Servite boys’ water polo team failed to take advantage of its opportunities Saturday night in the final of the S&R; Sport Cup at Corona del Mar High. Fortunately, the Friars made good use of Adam Hewko.

Hewko scored the final three goals to help Servite hold off North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake, 8-7, in a matchup of the top teams from Southern Section Division I and II.

Hewko’s final goal gave Servite, the top team in Division II, an 8-6 lead with 1 minute 52 seconds remaining in the game. Harvard-Westlake, No. 1 in Division I, cut the lead to the final margin on Alex Kofsky’s goal with 37 seconds left, but the Wolverines did not get another chance.

The Friars (13-1) did not score on any of their five man-advantage situations, but did not relinquish the lead after Chris Lingle and Scott Schauer scored goals one minute apart midway through the second quarter to give them a 3-2 lead.

“That’s an apparent weakness,” Hewko said of the shutout on the extra-man situations. “That game didn’t show our best at all.”

Harvard-Westlake (14-1), ranked No. 1 by The Times, and Servite, ranked No. 3 by The Times, traded leads three times in the first half. Rory Bevins gave Servite a 1-0 advantage two minutes into the game on a goal from the perimeter, but the Wolverines ended the quarter by scoring on its final two possessions.

Bevins briefly gave the Friars a two-goal lead with another goal from outside with three seconds left in the half. However, Harvard-Westlake’s Justin Rappel scored from three-quarter tank at the buzzer to cut the lead to 4-3.

The Wolverines tied the score, 4-4, midway through the third quarter on a pass from Kofsky to a driving Hank Weintraub. Harvard-Westlake also snuffed out Servite’s first three man-advantage opportunities of the game in the third quarter, but that didn’t keep Servite from moving ahead, 6-4, on a successful lob shot from Adam McCall and Hewko’s first goal of the game with 1:22 left in the third quarter.

Rappel then added his second goal of the game with 52 seconds remaining in the quarter to cut the deficit, but Hewko moved the Friars back ahead with a counterattack goal with four minutes left. Hewko’s goal followed one of nine saves by Servite goalkeeper Andrew Mesesan.

San Jose Bellarmine Prep, the only one of six teams from outside of Southern California, lost to Foothill, 11-7, in the third-place game.

-- Dan Arritt

Simi Valley Royal won the boys’ championship race in the Clovis Invitational cross-country meet at Woodward Park in Fresno.

Royal, ranked No. 3 in the Southland by The Times, scored 128 points to finish ahead of unranked Palmdale Highland with 164. No. 6 Bellflower St. John Bosco finished third with 185 points.

Junior Dylan Jaedtke led Royal with a seventh-place time of 15:42 over 5,000 meters.