Sailors perform well in scrimmage against Santa Margarita

The intensity was there in the water, but there were some signs that Wednesday afternoon’s scrimmage between Santa Margarita boys’ water polo and host Newport Harbor didn’t actually count.

The scoreboard wasn’t on at the Sailors’ pool, and there was nobody sitting at the scorer’s table.

Still, it was a back-and-forth contest that gave both teams their first look at live action this season. And in the end, Newport Harbor unofficially won, 8-7, on a late strike from sophomore center Ike Love assisted by Jake Liechty.

Both the Sailors and Eagles have high hopes for this season. Newport Harbor brings back several key players from a team that narrowly lost last year in the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 1 playoffs. Santa Margarita won the Division 2 title last year, the first boys’ water polo CIF crown in program history.

Newport Harbor has 12 of those, but just one since the year 2000. The march toward a run at title No. 13 started Wednesday, and coach Ross Sinclair played everyone. Senior Ryan Brosnan led the way for the Sailors with four goals.

“I wanted to get everyone in there, give everyone run, and kind of use this to see who can play at this level,” said Sinclair, entering his third year in charge at his alma mater. “Everyone played, and everyone contributed, which was cool. That’s always nice for us.

“Considering how early in the season it is, we did some really nice things. We communicated well, we defended pretty well, and our goalie Max [Sandberg] had a good game.”

Sandberg had eight saves before giving way to backup goalie Blake Jackson in the second half, and the sophomore made three stops of his own. In the scoring column, sophomore left-hander Tommy Kennedy put in two power-play goals, while centers Love and senior Jackson Westerman had one goal each.

Kennedy is the team’s lefty following the graduation of captain Cole Brosnan, and he was effective early.

“He was aggressive, and that’s something I’m trying to stress with him,” Sinclair said. “He’s got a gift; he’s a very talented shooter. He’s starting to realize he’s got something special. I would kind of rather have him be aggressive and tell him to back off, than the other way around.”

Westerman, who committed to UCLA on Tuesday, drew three exclusions for the Sailors, with Love drawing two. Several other players contributed steals, including Makoto Kenney, Jack White, John Rankin, Liechty, Makana Sanita and Johnny Rimlinger.

UCLA commit Brock Petersen and Stanford commit AJ Rossman each scored twice to lead Santa Margarita. Santa Margarita goalie Noah Hodge, a Harvard commit, made five saves.

Newport Harbor opens the season Sept. 7 with its traditional opening game against Long Beach Wilson, at home. The Sailors hope to be in the mix in Division 1. This year there is a new playoff format, as the top eight teams designated as Division 1 or 2 will be selected for the Division 1 playoffs at the end of the season.

The Sailors want to be included. They were already top eight at a big tournament over the summer, the USA Water Polo Junior Olympics, which is a rare feat for a team consisting solely of players from the same high school.

“We’re a tight-knit group,” Ryan Brosnan said. “Ever since we started playing varsity, it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s a young group.’ Finally, we’re the old group and we’re ready. We’ve been playing together forever, since we were 8 years old.

“[The Junior Olympics placing] just showed us that we’re a good team, that we can play with all of the teams that are up there. It shows that training together all the time helps.”

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo