Sailors Regroup to Beat Irvine in Water Polo

For a brief moment, Irvine dominated top-ranked Newport Harbor in boys’ water polo Wednesday.

But as quickly as the Vaqueros took a two-goal lead in the opening minutes, the Sailors regrouped and went on a scoring spree that ended in a 13-5 Sea View League victory at Newport Harbor High.

In the teams’ first meeting of the season, No. 9 Irvine was pumped at the start and Peter Schafer scored first at 6:16, followed by Billy Swanson’s goal 45 seconds later.

But just when it appeared Irvine might give the Sailors a challenge, Newport Harbor tightened its defense and used its speed to run numerous counters.

Senior Robert Weiner got things going for the Sailors, scoring two goals in the first quarter. Ryan Cook followed with the first of his two goals and Steven Jendrusina added the first of his two, putting Newport Harbor ahead, 4-2, at the end of the first quarter.

“I was really happy the way our team remained composed after Irvine took the early lead,” Newport Harbor Coach Brian Kreutzkamp said. “We really worked hard preparing for Irvine. Our defense played well and we were able to utilize the counters.”

In fact, Newport Harbor (10-0) scored five of its goals on the counter.

“After taking the lead, their zone defense didn’t let us back into the game, and we didn’t adjust too well to that and their counters,” Irvine Coach Greg Gray said.

Two-meter man Peter Belden again led the Sailors in scoring with five goals, and teammate Kyle Bean had two. Tim Birdsong had nine saves.

Swanson and Chris Peck each scored two goals for Irvine (9-2).