U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL : Blue Gets Shutout in Ice Hockey for the South

John Blue of El Toro recorded only the third shutout ever in U.S. Olympic Festival ice hockey competition Tuesday as the South defeated the West, 3-0, in front of 2,134 at Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro.

Blue, a goalkeeper who helped the University of Minnesota to the 1987 NCAA Final Four, made 33 saves, and joins Bob Mason of the 1983 West team and Cleon Daskalakis of the 1981 New England team as the only goalies to record Festival shutouts.

“There are some good goalies here, and two games isn’t much of an opportunity to show what you can do,” said Blue, who nevertheless got off to a great start.

Michele Granger, the 17-year-old pitching phenom from Placentia, pitched a one-hitter Tuesday morning, but lost.

She gave up a solo home run to JoAnn Ferrieri of Orange, playing here for the North team (Los Angeles Diamonds). The run gave the North a 1-0 victory over Granger’s South team (Orange County Majestics).

Connie Clark, who led Cal State Fullerton to the 1986 NCAA championship and the 1987 College World Series, pitched a two-hitter, allowing two singles, for the victory at Lions Park in Raleigh.

The Majestics and the Diamonds will meet at 6:30 p.m. today for the bronze medal; the Southern California Invasion (West) plays the Hi-Ho Brakettes of Stratford, Conn. (East), for the gold at 8:30 p.m.

The West water polo team, which has won six of the seven gold medals in festival history, has been ousted from the gold-medal game for the first time.

The East withstood five goals in the final 6:45 to defeat the four-time defending champion West, 9-8, in the fifth round of competition at Koury Natatorium in Chapel Hill.

The West had trailed, 8-3, entering the final period, but closed to 8-7 before Jeff Oeding of Newport Beach scored the eventual winning goal with 2:23 to play, making it 9-7.

Tony Bell of Costa Mesa, Mike Doting of Garden Grove, Mike Halphide of Newport Beach, Julian Harvey of Laguna Hills and Dan Smoot of Tustin, all UC Irvine players, are on the West team that will meet the South for the bronze medal at 7 tonight.

The North and East play for the gold at 8:30.

Tom Lewis of Garden Grove, the former Mater Dei star who plays for Pepperdine, is the third leading scorer in the basketball competition with a 17.0 average. J.R. Reid of North Carolina is the leader with an 18.5 average; Elander Lewis of St. John’s (18.0 ppg) is second.

Festival Notes

Greg Wilson of Laguna Niguel scored five goals in two games for the South water polo team. . . . Tom Redington of Anaheim, formerly of Esperanza High, elected not to join the U.S. Junior National baseball team that has been selected to play in the World Junior Championships Aug. 1-8 in Winsor, Ontario. . . . Mark Kerins of Huntington Beach is on the West men’s volleyball team that advanced through the preliminaries unbeaten and will play the North team for the gold medal at 9 tonight.