Roundup: Newport Beach 18U boys settle for silver at Junior Olympics
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IRVINE — The Newport Beach Water Polo Club 18-and-under boys battled back at the USA Water Polo Junior Olympics.
A 17-9 loss to Stanford Red on the second day of the four-day tournament made for a longer road back to the gold medal match. Yet, Newport Beach earned a 14-6 win when the teams faced off again in the tournament semifinals Sunday morning.
“We got punched in the face, that’s what our coaches told us, in that game we lost,” Stanford-bound Newport Beach attacker Kai Kaneko said. “We really, really bought in as a team after that. I think before, we were mostly just a group of seniors — or actually, college freshmen — just playing as individuals instead of as a team. After that game, we started playing as a team, started buying into each other and into our system.”
The local squad just came up one game short of the gold medal. SD Dons beat Newport Beach 17-5 in the gold medal match Sunday evening at Woollett Aquatics Center.
SD Dons featured several players from Cathedral Catholic High, which has forged a rivalry recently with the core group of Newport Harbor High players.
Kaneko had five goals and two assists to pace Newport Beach. Tyler Anderson and Connor Ohl each scored three goals, with Anderson earning at least seven exclusions at center.
Diego Dantas paced SD Dons with four goals.
“We gave up 17 goals,” Ohl said. “It was a terrible defensive day. Just one of those games where we started weak, and we gave them life. That life, we could never put down again after the start.”
Still, the Stanford-bound Ohl said he was also proud of the fight his team showed throughout the tournament.
“That’s exactly what Newport has always been,” Ohl said. “If we get hit, we come back and regroup and recuperate, and then we handle business. I was so proud that all of the guys seemed to remember that. That’s just something that every one of them lives by, including myself.”
Newport Beach played catch-up for most of the gold medal match, taking its first lead at 14-13 midway through the fourth quarter on a no-look goal by Kaneko. A goal by Newport Beach’s Mason Netzer tied the score at 15-15 with 1:55 left, but SD Dons scored the final two goals for the win.
It was the fourth straight 18U gold medal appearance for the Newport Beach boys at the Junior Olympics.
Vanguard 12s, Newport 14s, 16s all earn bronze
A trio of local boys’ club teams also earned bronze medals Sunday, as the Vanguard 12s, Newport Beach 14s and Newport Beach 16s all earned their way onto the podium.
It was the second straight bronze medal finish for the Vanguard 12s at the Junior Olympics, coach Brian Anderson said. His team rebounded from a 10-3 semifinal loss to eventual champion Mission to beat Stanford Red 12-4 in the bronze medal match.
Key players for Vanguard included all-around leader Gunner Westmoreland, center Austin Rhee and a pair of dynamic attackers in Athan Segura and Tucker Carbonaro.
“We’re super happy beating Stanford two times in a row, that’s difficult,” Anderson said. “We didn’t play very well this morning [against Mission]. This afternoon, for third place, we played up to our potential.”
The Newport Beach 14Us had a controversial loss to La Jolla United, 11-10, in the tournament semifinals Sunday morning. Newport coach Joey Fuentes said a clock error led to more time being added at the end of the game, and La Jolla took advantage by scoring the winning goal.
Newport Beach beat SD Dons 8-6 for the bronze medal.
“I’m happy that these guys leave the season with something to commemorate it,” Fuentes said. “They deserve that, but it’s also bittersweet. I don’t really feel like we got beat the right way.”
Wilder Ward led Newport Beach with four goals in the bronze-medal match. Carter Frohlich scored twice and Tanner Thomas and Ford Wawrzynski also scored.
Fuentes said that Ward, an incoming freshman at Newport Harbor, started the season on the second-team White 14s, but played his way onto the Blue squad.
“I’m really proud to be able to coach a kid like that,” Fuentes said. “We love Wilder, man. He’s a testament of everything that Newport Beach Water Polo should be, honestly.”
The Newport Beach Water Polo Blue 16s also earned bronze. After falling 8-7 to Stanford Red in the semifinals, Newport earned a 12-11 win over Patriot Navy in the bronze medal match.
Sean Anderson had four goals for Newport in the bronze medal match, and Caruso Polenzani added three. Curren Francisco and Davis Kipp also scored twice.
