Foothill Wins Water Polo Tournament

The chasm between Santa Ana Foothill and every other girls’ water polo team in the Southland grew a little wider Saturday.

The Knights were nearly perfect in a 6-1 victory over Newport Harbor in the championship game of the Southern California Invitational at Corona del Mar High, marking the third time this season they have defeated the Sailors in a tournament final.

The Sailors had eight extra-man opportunities and a penalty shot, but could not capitalize on any against the stingy Foothill defense.

“[The players] know when the 5-on-6 hits, it’s time to work because you’re suddenly responsible for guarding two people,” said Foothill co-Coach Dan Klatt.

Foothill won by only a goal in its last two victories over Newport Harbor, a team many believe offers the best chance to defeat the Knights (25-0). The Sailors (21-4) will get another chance against Foothill on Wednesday in a Sea View League finale at Tustin High, and presumably again at the Southern Section Division I final in three weeks.

Newport Harbor tied the score, 1-1, with four minutes remaining in the first quarter. Brittany Hayes gave Foothill a 2-1 lead two minutes later and Grace Reynolds scored in the second quarter to make it 3-1 at the half.

Newport Harbor failed to convert on two extra-man situations in the third quarter before Kaitlin Prijatel scored for a 4-1 lead.

-- Dan Arritt

The decision to restore two South Coast League victories to the Lake Forest El Toro girls’ soccer team was made at the discretion of a Southern Section committee that ruled on an appeal in the case of an ineligible player.

El Toro junior midfielder Sara Sadick played in two exhibitions for club teams in December after the high school season had begun. The committee changed the penalty from forfeiting one nonleague and three league victories to forfeiting the next four games Sadick participated in after the exhibition, which included a league victory over Dana Point Dana Hills. Sadick also had to sit out four other games, which she has done.

“It was their prerogative,” Commissioner Jim Staunton said of the committee’s decision. “They upheld the penalty. She participated in a [club] contest and [El Toro] has to forfeit four games. There’s no specific rule that says they can make that particular change, but it does give them that prerogative.”

El Toro began league play 4-1-1, but is now 3-3-2, including the forfeit, in league play.

“Do it the way you had it, or don’t do it at all,” said Coach Stacey Juhl Finnerty of San Clemente, which had originally received a forfeit victory from El Toro. “Dana Hills prospers and nobody else does. My concern is that CIF has to follow their rules. I think [the change of forfeits] caused a lot of heartache for everyone. I don’t know who to blame it on, but it’s a tough one to swallow.”

El Toro officials said they didn’t feel Sadick competed in an actual club event because the exhibition games were showcases during the NCAA women’s soccer final four weekend and no time or score were kept.

“They made a compromise on the severity of the penalty,” El Toro girls’ Athletic Director Sheri Ross said. “It’s exciting because it puts El Toro back in the race for the [league] championship.”

-- Lauren Peterson

Phillip Reid of Oxnard Rio Mesa and Michael Poe of Etiwanda will run in a special boys’ mile race in the Tyson Foods Invitational indoor track and field meet Saturday at the University of Arkansas.

Reid was the runner-up in the 1,600 meters in the state championships last year and Poe was the fourth-place finisher in the 3,200.

The boys’ mile will be the only high school event in a meet that will have 17 events featuring world- and national-class athletes.

Chris Solinsky of Stevens Point, Wis., and Bobby Curtis of St. Xavier in Louisville, Ky., two of the nation’s top high school runners, will miss the Tyson meet because they’ll be running in the junior boys’ race of the USA Track & Field cross-country championships in Houston on Feb. 16.

-- John Ortega

John Lorenzo, a golfer at Laguna Hills, has signed with La Salle.