Southland’s Top Teams to Meet at Last?

Either by design or bad luck, Santa Ana Foothill, Bell Gardens and Santa Margarita have avoided playing one another this season.

The Southern California Invitational this weekend will provide the teams a last opportunity to meet until the playoffs.

The tournament, in its seventh season, features 30 of the top teams from the Southland, and Carlsbad and Coronado from the San Diego Section. Every team in The Times’ top 10 began play Thursday at three sites: Heritage Park in Irvine, Lake Forest El Toro High and Corona del Mar High. The final is Saturday at 3 p.m. at Heritage Park.

Foothill and Santa Margarita are seeded No. 1 in the two eight-team brackets competing at Heritage Park, Bell Gardens is top-seeded at El Toro and Santa Barbara is seeded No. 1 at Corona del Mar. If each wins its quarterfinal game tonight, Foothill will play Santa Margarita in one semifinal at 10 a.m. Saturday at Heritage Park, followed by the other semifinal, pitting Bell Gardens and Santa Barbara, the top-ranked team in Division II.

The tournament will provide the toughest test of the season for Bell Gardens (20-0), the three-time defending Division III champion, which has not entered any of this winter’s elite tournaments. Foothill ended the Lancers’ 85-game winning streak at the Southern California Championships last season.

“We’re trying to gear everything toward Southern California Championships,” Bell Gardens Coach Robert Greenamyer said last week. “The big thing right now is just working on the minor details.”

Foothill (17-1) and Santa Margarita (15-4) appeared headed toward a showdown at the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions three weeks ago, but the Eagles were upset in the semifinals by Santa Barbara. The teams were also headed for a matchup in the Newport Harbor/Corona del Mar tournament over Christmas break, but Santa Margarita lost that semifinal to Poway.

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Tough timetable: The Southern California Invitational has been in existence longer than the Southern Section championships, which are in their fifth year, and the team that survives the weekend without a loss is unofficially considered the best in the nation.

“It’s pretty brutal,” said Irvine Coach Scott Hinman, who has been the tournament’s director from the beginning. “Most coaches will agree it’s more difficult to win this tournament than [a section title].”

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Cool, cool water: Newport Harbor’s game Wednesday against Irvine Woodbridge had to be moved to Corona del Mar High because the water was too cold at the Sailors’ pool. A broken boiler was to blame, but the late change of venue didn’t keep Newport Harbor from a 13-2 victory.

Coach Bill Barnett said the boiler has been inoperative since December, dipping water temperatures to around 75 degrees. Most pools are regulated to stay at 78 degrees or higher.

The pool at Newport Harbor, one of the few 50-meter designs in Southern California, has two boilers; the other is working. Barnett said he hopes to have the boiler repaired in time for the Southern Section playoffs later this month.

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Title contenders: The ugly spotlight on the Covina Charter Oak water polo program last fall hasn’t carried over to the swimming pool. Charter Oak, whose coach was arrested in October for allegedly having sex with a member of the team, clinched at least a tie for the Miramonte League title Wednesday with a 12-2 victory over La Puente.

Charter Oak is 8-0 in league and can clinch the title outright with a victory Wednesday against visiting Hacienda Heights Los Altos (7-2).

Dan Arritt