It’s Five Titles in a Row for the Sea Kings

Camille Hewko, Tamua Anae and the rest of the Corona del Mar girls’ water polo team proved to be a handful as the Sea Kings won their fifth consecutive Southern Section championship with an 11-4 victory over Villa Park in the Division II final Monday night at Belmont Plaza.

Hewko scored a game-high three goals to lead Corona del Mar’s offense and Anae was outstanding in making nine saves in goal to head the Sea Kings’ stifling defense.

Corona del Mar did not give up a goal for more than 20 minutes during one stretch, from when Villa Park tied the score at 1-1 with 1 minute 31 seconds gone in the first quarter until the Spartans’ second goal with just over a minute gone in the fourth.

“Having a huge game is kind of my responsibility in these kind of games,” said Anae, a senior who has committed to USC.

Corona del Mar (28-3), which began its string of section titles by beating Placentia El Dorado, 11-6, for the Division IV championship in 2002, has now won the last four Division II titles.

“We earned it every single year,” Anae said. “This is the best reward for us, and we all deserve it.”

Ashley Chandler opened the scoring for top-seeded Corona del Mar and then unseeded Villa Park (25-8), the third-place representative from the Century League, tied the score with a turnaround shot by Cassie Churnside. Hewko gave the Sea Kings the lead for good at 2-1 with 4:56 to go in the first quarter.

Chino Hills Ayala 11, Whittier 10 -- Chelsea Curran, Erin Herold and Heidi Pettinger each scored three times and Alex Ford had the decisive goal as Ayala won its first title in the Division III final.

Ford found herself alone at two meters and scored Ayala’s last goal with 5:20 left to play. The No. 2-seeded Bulldogs made an 11-8 lead stand up against top-seeded Whittier in the second division final in a row between the teams. Whittier edged Ayala, 12-11, in overtime in last year’s title game.

“We knew it’d be tough. I thought it’d be even closer,” Ford said with a laugh.

Whittier (27-4) fell behind early but rallied to tie the score four times going into the fourth quarter. The Cardinals closed the 11-8 deficit to the final margin on goals by Gisselle Naranjo and Mary Ann Campos, but Ford and Ayala sophomore goalkeeper Caitlin Dement each made steals in the last two minutes to help the Bulldogs (27-5) hang on for the victory.

“That last two minutes were so long,” said Curran, the Bulldogs’ senior center. “But our coach gave us papers to study on them, and we studied and we got an ‘A.’ ”

Ayala’s spread offense offset a strong performance by Campos, who finished with a game-high six goals and also made a save in the net after Whittier goalkeeper Brooke Sovick committed a foul against Curran and was hit with a 20-second exclusion with a minute to play.