El Toro Bounces Past Sailors

After Newport Harbor and El Toro played six minutes of overtime and nearly nine minutes of sudden-death, it figured that a little luck would be necessary to decide the Southern Section Division I girls’ water polo playoff quarterfinal.

And El Toro got the fortuitous bounce when Brittany Ditto’s outside shot deflected off the arm of Newport Harbor’s Jenna Murphy and trickled into the goal, ending a 7-6 game in the 15th minute of overtime Tuesday at El Toro High.

With 13 seconds remaining in the third sudden-death period, Ditto’s deflected shot from seven meters sent the Chargers (23-6) into the semifinals to play the Santa Margarita, a 12-6 winner over Los Alamitos, Friday.

“I was open and the shot clock was running down,” said Ditto, who scored two goals, both in overtime. “I just prayed that it would go in, maybe that someone would tip it in or something.”

El Toro’s Ke’ala Carter was jockeying for position in front of Sailor goalie Heather Deyden, who had 10 saves, and both Murphy and Carter put up their hands as Ditto took the shot.

“Deyden would’ve had an easy save,” Newport Harbor Coach Bill Barnett said. “Murphy hit it, but she was just trying to do her job. It seemed every little bit of luck went our way, but not the one in the end.”

Erin and Jessica Ball each scored two goals for Newport Harbor (22-8), which was fortunate to survive as long as it did.

With nine seconds remaining in the first sudden death, Deyden was ejected for a foul. Carter then moved in for a shot from four meters, but with three Sailor field players extending their arms in front of the goal, her shot glanced harmlessly off the top of the crossbar.

Newport Harbor, which was seeded third, reached sudden death only because after Ditto scored with 1 minute 37 seconds remaining in overtime to give El Toro a 6-5 lead, Sailor senior Jenna Booth scored with 29 seconds remaining in the period to make it 6-6 and force sudden death.

It was the only goal in 12 shots for Booth, the team’s second-leading scorer who had 48 goals entering the game. Ditto stuck to Booth for most of the game and finished with a team-high six steals.

Erica Nicholson also scored twice for El Toro. But the Charger defense, which held Newport Harbor’s leading scorer Katherine Belden (53 goals) to one, put El Toro in a position to win.

“That was the longest overtime game I’ve been involved in,” El Toro Coach Don Stoll said. “Nine periods . . . I feel lucky.”