Southern Section Water Polo : Sunny Hills Holds On to Make It to Title Game : Lancers Eliminate Newport Harbor, Play Corona del Mar for Championship

With about three minutes remaining in Friday’s Southern Section semifinal match between rivals Sunny Hills High School and Newport Harbor at Cypress College, Lancer Coach Jim Sprague suddenly became spirited.

Sprague walked around excitedly and shouted words of encouragement to his players. The Sunny Hills fans, who were seated behind him, responded by cheering wildly.

They had reason to celebrate. The Lancers were leading, 10-5, and although Newport Harbor scored the next three goals, Sunny Hills held on to win, 10-8, to earn a berth in next Friday’s championship game against Corona del Mar in Belmont Plaza pool at Long Beach.

The victory was especially sweet for Sprague, who has lost to Bill Barnett’s Sailors five of the seven times they have met in the Southern Section championship game since 1970.

“We performed like we wanted to, and we got some breaks,” Sprague said. “Every time they started to creep up on us, we would score a goal.”

Sunny Hills gained a 3-0 lead on two goals by Javier Santiago and one by Bill Slope. Newport Harbor’s Eriks Krumins then scored to cut the lead to 3-1, but that was as close as the Sailors got as their defense was unable to contain Sunny Hills. After three quarters, Sunny Hills held an 8-4 lead.

“We made way too many mistakes, which led to several early goals by Sunny Hills,” Barnett said. “Overall, I thought our play was very sloppy.”

Slope, who plays the two-meter position, which is similar to a high post center in basketball, scored three goals. The Lancers’ Adam Smith and Santiago each added two. Robert Gifford, Chris Graham and Skylar Putman scored two goals each for Newport Harbor.

Lancer goalie Sean McCloskey had eight saves, and Newport Harbor’s goalies, Wells Gutherie and Dave Stewart, combined for 13.

“McCloskey played real well today,” Sprague said. “And Slope, who I think is the best two-meter man in CIF, also performed well.”