Boys’ Water Polo: Sailors make playoffs
The Newport Harbor High boys’ water polo team found itself in a unique situation Thursday night.
The Sailors were on the precipice of perhaps the first playoff-less season in program history. It was the latest challenge in a challenging season.
But with their backs against the wall, facing what essentially was a play-in game against Los Alamitos, the Sailors responded.
Newport Harbor dominated Los Al, 17-4, at home, clinching the third and final spot from the Sunset League into the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs.
Edison defeated Los Al, 4-3, on Wednesday night to create a three-way tie for second place in league with the Griffins and Sailors. The Chargers, who won the ensuing coin flip and chose to play for second place, then defeated the Griffins, 7-3, in a game earlier Thursday in a game to determine the designated second-place finisher in league.
With the two losses Thursday, Los Alamitos was eliminated from playoff contention, as there are no at-large berths available in Division 1 this year.
Newport Harbor, meanwhile, knows its record is not impressive at 9-16. The Sailors are not ranked in the top 10 of Division 1 or Orange County, and they lost nine — count ‘em, nine — one-goal games this year.
But Coach Marco Palazzo’s Sailors believe they could be a tough out in the Division 1 playoffs, for which brackets will be released Sunday at 9 a.m. As the designated third representative from league, Newport Harbor will likely face a league champion in the first round, although it could have a wild-card match. The talk on the pool deck Thursday night was that the first-round opponent could be rival Corona del Mar, the Pacific Coast League champion ranked No. 4 in Division 1.
“It definitely feels good to be in the playoffs,” said Newport senior goalie Nick Wood, who made 11 saves in three quarters against Los Al on Thursday night. “With everything that we’ve gone through this year, we’re just happy to be in a situation where we have a chance to do something in the playoffs. Hopefully, we might be playing CdM. They won their league, so that would be interesting. our record doesn’t show what we’re capable of. We’ve definitely got a strong team, and I don’t think anybody should doubt us.”
The Sailors have lost to the Sea Kings twice this year, including the Battle of the Bay game, but both games were close. They also had competitive losses against No. 3 Loyola (11-10) and No. 5 Long Beach Wilson (10-9).
Newport Harbor could have finished outright second place in league, too. But the Sailors fell to Los Al, 8-6, in a league game Oct. 15 where five starters were suspended by Palazzo.
“It is frustrating, because in the league, we beat Edison by nine [13-4 on Oct. 22],” Palazzo said. “Tonight, we beat Los Alamitos by 13. We deserve to end up second, but we completely understand the system and we respect what happened last night. We noticed that kind of frustration in the kids tonight and they played really strong. Newport is a team that nobody should underestimate for the playoffs. These kids have quality, and I’m sure they will show quality for the playoffs.
“I think that these boys, and myself included, we learned a lot from all of those losses this year, all of those games we lost by one. We learned what to do better defensively, offensively. The playoffs [are] another story. We’re prepared for playoffs. We’re not going to play any game intimated by our low ranking.”
Senior Charlie Padden led the scoring Thursday with five goals. Hannes Daube, Nic Rimlinger and Jackson Westerman each scored twice, while Ryan Braun, Gavin Kunkle, Jack Mooers, Jason Trzeciecki, Cole Brosnan and senior captain Clay Davison added one goal each. Westerman, a freshman center, was impressive in his third appearance for the Sailors, scoring on a nice backhand from two meters.
Backup goalie Ryan Taylor subbed in for Wood in the final quarter and made one save.
Jack Everts led Los Alamitos (10-16) with two goals. The second one made the score 3-2 in the first quarter, before the Sailors rattled off 14 unanswered goals.
“Our defense has been playing really good lately,” Wood said. “We’ve been communicating, we’ve been like lights out. Our last game against Edison they allowed four goals, and this game they allowed two, four technically ... We have just a solid core. Together we all play really well together. We’ve been playing with each other since we were kids, so we all know what to expect from each other.”
The Sailors don’t expect anything to come easy in CIF. But they are excited for that challenge.
They already have won two must-win games, the league finale against Fountain Valley on Wednesday and Thursday’s game against Los Alamitos.
“We’re ready, we’re hungry,” Wood said. “We definitely wanted to prove to ourselves, not only to ourselves but to everybody who’s on the committee for the playoff seedings, that we’re a really dominant team. We deserve to be up there with the best of them.”
