Boys’ Water Polo: CdM takes control
A deep Corona del Mar High boys’ water polo team seemed more than ready for Saturday night’s Battle of the Bay rivalry game.
The Sea Kings jumped on visiting Newport Harbor early, shutting down the Sailors and holding them scoreless for the first 11-plus minutes of the game.
And just when it seemed Newport Harbor was ready to make a run, CdM had an answer.
In front of a spirited capacity crowd, the Sea Kings scored five unanswered goals in the third quarter on their way to a 9-7 victory, their first in the Battle of the Bay since 2010.
Last year much of the attention focused on Newport-Mesa Player of the Year Luca Cupido of Newport Harbor, who helped the Sailors win their third straight Battle of the Bay contest. Cupido, a transfer from Italy now playing at Cal, attended Saturday night’s match along with CdM alumni like Matt Sherburne (Cal) and Kyle Trush (UCI).
But he was not able to jump in the water to help this year’s Sailors, ranked No. 9 in CIF Southern Section Division 1, who fell to 4-11 and lost their fifth straight game overall.
Senior Ashton Jajonie scored a game-high four goals and had two steals for CdM (7-2), ranked No. 4 in Division 1. Senior Garrett Spruth had three goals and three steals, and senior goalie Nigel Bress had 11 saves — five in the fourth quarter as the Sea Kings closed out the win.
CdM Coach Barry O’Dea was fired up throughout the game, openly interacting with and pumping up the fans. He remained pumped up himself after the victory.
“Last year they had Cupido, and how many games did they win by one goal with Cupido?” O’Dea said. “Now they don’t have that guy playing ... it is what it is. I’m super-proud of our team because we’re our own community. There’s no one outside our boundaries playing on CdM. We’re homegrown, and that’s a big point for us this year and going forward. We’ve got 86, 87 kids in the program, all in our boundaries, and I think we’re going in the right direction right now.
“I’m fired up tonight, baby. That’s the most fun I’ve had in a long time. I have great classes here. I teach three periods of juniors, one period of seniors. I tell you, I looked up in the stands and all of my classes were here, and they brought all their friends. They were super-good fans, and I thought they did an awesome job tonight. Every time we needed a big push and we needed some support, the crowd stepped up, and I think our guys fed off that.”
Senior Jack Trush had a goal, a steal and drew two exclusions for CdM. Senior Patrick Ong had a goal, two steals and two exclusions drawn for the Sea Kings, who had more counterattack opportunities than the Sailors and survived a night where they went just three for 12 on the power play. Newport Harbor finished three for nine with the extra player.
“We were CIF runner-up two years in a row in Division 1 swimming, and we finished fifth last year in Division 1 swimming,” O’Dea said. “We’re pretty fast.”
Newport Harbor, down 4-2 at halftime, came out strong in the third quarter as a pair of goals by senior captain Clay Davison (three goals overall) tied the score. Then senior Luke Bradbury took senior Ryan Braun’s pass and buried the power-play goal. The Sailors had their first lead of the game, at 5-4, with 5:04 left in the third quarter.
The lead only lasted just more than a minute. Jajonie scored from five meters, then Spruth added a pair of goals. A steal by Spruth then led to a counterattack goal by Ong.
Ong then got yet another steal and drew an exclusion. Trush fed Jajonie for the power-play goal and suddenly CdM was up, 9-5, late in the third quarter.
Newport pulled to 9-7 late, on a rebound goal by junior Gavin Kunkle with 1:22 left in the game. But the Sailors ran out of time.
“We had a big, big comeback, huge momentum,” Newport Harbor Coach Marco Palazzo said. “But I’ve got to tell you that the CdM boys, they just played better. They shot the ball better than us, they were so ready on the turnover transitions. To me, they deserved to win the game because they played better. They swam faster than us, they shot better than us. So congratulations to CdM.”
Senior Jack Mooers had a goal and two steals for the Sailors, and sophomore Ryan Hurst was impressive with three exclusions drawn before fouling out late. Newport senior goalie Nick Wood played big all night with 14 saves, including a steal and a deflection on two Jajonie counterattacks in the fourth quarter.
But the Sailors, who have lost seven one-goal games this year, were headed to yet another close defeat. They will have to rebound quickly, with a key Sunset League opener against Huntington Beach (No. 6 in Division 1) on Wednesday.
For CdM, the fact that it was the first Battle of the Bay win in four years just made it that much sweeter.
“This is the first time that I’ve been at CdM that we won Battle of the Bay,” Jajonie said. “It’s an amazing feeling. It’ll launch us into a new level of competition, because now we know we can do pretty much anything.”
Added Spruth: “It’s just amazing what we can do when we really work as a team. It feels so good to be the senior [class] that wins the Battle of the Bay.”
CdM swept the three Battle of the Bay matches Saturday night. The Sea Kings won the frosh-soph game, 9-4, and won the junior varsity game 11-9 in overtime. Tanner Roletter scored three overtime goals for CdM’s JV squad, and Nick Britt added another goal.
