Prep Review : 2 Teams Rise Above Sea-View Level

Can you spot the trend in Newport Beach?

Newport Harbor High School defeated Corona del Mar in the 5-A girls’ volleyball final.

Corona del Mar defeated Newport Harbor in the 4-A water polo final.

The Newport Harbor boys’ and girls’ cross-country teams each qualified for the state championships, Nov. 28.

The Corona del Mar boys’ cross-country team, ranked No. 1 in Orange County throughout the season, also qualified for the state meet.

Corona del Mar’s Danielle Scott advanced to the final of the 4-A tennis championships.

In football, Corona del Mar, the Sea View League champion, and Newport Harbor each qualified for the Central Conference playoffs.

Corona del Mar defeated Troy, 28-7, in the first round.

Newport Harbor pulled off one of the first round’s biggest upsets, beating No. 2 seeded Sunny Hills, 31-21.

Sea View add: It was a good first round all around the Sea View League. All four football teams in the playoffs won, outscoring opponents, 92-34.

The Sea View League’s success spelled doom for the Freeway League’s playoff participants, which went 0-3.

Besides Corona del Mar’s victory over Troy, and Newport Harbor’s upset of Sunny Hills, Tustin completed the sweep by beating Fullerton, 9-6.

Last add: Danielle Scott’s loss in the Southern Section individual tennis final Saturday at the Irvine Racquet Club marked the third straight year an Orange County player has lost in the singles final.

Scott lost to Kim Po of Miraleste, 6-1, 6-4, Saturday. In 1986, Debbie Graham of La Quinta, the Times’ Player of the Year, reached the final, but lost. In 1985, Marina’s Carrie Criswell also reached the final, but was beaten.

Crespi’s Russell White and Servite’s Derek Brown, perhaps the two best junior running backs in the state, will meet in a Big Five quarterfinal game Friday in Anaheim’s Glover Stadium.

White was the Big Five player of the year as a sophomore, leading Crespi to the Big Five championship. He rushed for 344 yards and scored 5 touchdowns in Crespi’s 38-32 first-round victory over Riverside Poly.

Brown has led Servite on a four-game winning streak. In successive weeks, he has rushed for 224, 188, 116 and 128 yards.

Brown’s 128 yards and 2 touchdowns Friday led the Friars to a 31-7 first-round victory over Huntington Beach.

Crespi probably will be favored in the game, but just being able to see these two go against each other is worth the price of admission.

Players of the Weekend: El Dorado’s Scott Fairchild and Corona del Mar’s Chris Oeding each dominated their matches during Saturday’s Southern Section water polo championships at Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach.

Oeding, a junior, scored seven goals to lead the Sea Kings to a 10-8 victory over Newport Harbor in the final. It was the second championship in three years for Corona del Mar.

Fairchild scored five goals to lead underdog El Dorado to a 9-7 victory over Los Alamitos, a team the Golden Hawks had lost to twice previously. It was El Dorado’s third straight 3-A championship.

Fairchild’s performance was all the more significant because four of his goals came after El Dorado’s leading scorer, Steve Kidder, was ejected from the match midway through the third quarter.

Asked how much pressure he felt when Kidder left the pool, Fairchild said: “I didn’t even know he was gone.”

So much for drama.

Pat Blottiaux, who earlier this season set an Orange County record with a 56-yard field, came within inches of breaking that mark with a 57-yard attempt in Friday’s Big Five Conference playoff game against Huntington Beach.

Blottiaux’s try near the end of the third quarter had plenty of distance. The crowd cheered wildly thinking it good, but the officials under the goal posts hesitated a beat and waved it wide left and no good. It didn’t miss by much, though.

Blottiaux also missed on a 54-yard try in the first half, but made a 43-yarder with 20 yards to spare.

Prep Notes

The second Orange County all-star water polo game is scheduled for 1 p.m Saturday, Dec. 5, at Tustin High. Dave Simcox of Foothill will coach the North team and Boyd Philpot of Tustin will coach the South. Each team will have a limit of three players from one school. . . . Some of the county’s top basketball teams will travel out of state to play in holiday tournaments next month. Mater Dei is scheduled to play in the Blue Chip City Invitational in Cincinnati on Dec. 19 and the Seagull Classic Dec. 26-30 in Atlantic City. Capistrano Valley plays Bishop Ireton in Alexandria, Va. Dec. 21 and Archbishop Carroll in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 22. El Toro will compete in the Walter Wong Invitational in Honolulu Dec. 28-30. Ocean View has been invited to play in the Raleigh Times Tournament in North Carolina Dec. 28-30. Santa Ana and Woodbridge are entered in the Las Vegas Holiday Prep tournament Dec. 26-30. . . . Larry Smith, USC football coach, will be the guest speaker at the 29th Times football awards ceremony at 9 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 13, in the Anaheim Hilton Hotel and Towers. . . . Julie Willett of Laguna Hills High lost her first match of the season when she was eliminated from the Southern Section girls’ individual tennis tournament Friday. She lost to semifinalist, Laura Kimel of Dos Pueblos, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. She had entered the tournament with a record of 54-0.