Oilers fall to Mustangs in surf final

The Huntington Beach High School surf team competed in the first-ever Red Bull High School Cup national title final Tuesday night but it was the San Dieguito Academy Mustangs of Encinitas who claimed the first-place trophy by scoring a 74-61 victory at Trail 6 in San Onofre.

The Oilers reached the final after defeating Ocean City High of New Jersey in a semifinal game played earlier in the day. Freshman Evan Kane earned MVP honors for that semifinal game with the surfing of Logan Strook, Taylor Pai, Kyle McGeary and Eddie Elles contributing to the triumph.

San Dieguito advanced by defeating Ventura in Tuesday’s other semifinal.

In this new “The Game” format created by Brad Gerlach of the National Surf League — ironically, Gerlach attended both San Dieguito and Huntington Beach highs — there are four quarters of action, just as in traditional ball sports. Each team has a designated dugout like in baseball, is allowed to call timeouts, can make sudden substitutions during a game and a coin flip, like in football, is used at the beginning of a game to determine which team surfs first.

“The normal sports fan can relate to what is going on during the game format,” Oilers Coach Andy Verdone said.

In Tuesday’s championship final, it was all San Dieguito, although Huntington did win the coin toss and elected to surf second.

The Oilers never held the lead and were forced to play catch-up throughout the game.

“Coach Barry Deffenbaugh and I tried everything to stop the momentum of the Mustangs, but nothing seemed to work,” Verdone said. “We tried timeouts, substitutions and even pep talks by world champs Sunny Garcia and Peter Townend.

“The Mustangs would not be denied and at the closing ceremony we gave them a strong congratulations.”

Solid surfing performances were turned in by Qunn McCrystal, AJ Collins, Kyle Kennelly and Christian Seinz.

Huntington will vie for another national title Friday and Saturday when the Oilers compete at the National Scholastic Surfing Assn. Nationals.

“We must have strong contributions from our longboarder, Cheyne McDole, and our girls, Jenna Balester and Sara Taylor, to win the overall title,” Verdone said. “Others who need to perform at a high level are Bryan Van Arsdale, Drew Poff, Johnny Thomas, Brock Bowden and Dylan Nelson.”