Tars run out of time

IRVINE — As Newport Harbor High senior Clinton Jorth collected a steal with less than 10 seconds to go, noise engulfed the Irvine High pool.

There was screaming from the Newport and Coronado parents in attendance at Saturday’s S&R; Sport Southern California Invitational championship game. And, there was yelling from Newport Harbor Coach Jason Lynch for a timeout.

The former noise overpowered the latter.

The referees couldn’t hear Lynch’s calls and the Sailors couldn’t get a shot off before time expired, as Coronado survived with an 8-7 victory.

Jorth stole the ball from Coronado standout Jacob Smith and had Colin McKibbin open on the weak side. But, in the pandemonium of the final seconds of the game, the Sailors (13-2) just ran out of time.

CIF San Diego Section powerhouse Coronado beat Newport Harbor for the second time this season, the other being a 9-8 nonleague victory on Sept. 15.

“We had a two-on-one,” Lynch said. “I probably shouldn’t have even been calling the timeout. He probably did me a favor by not giving me one...we’re not going to get a better shot than that anyway.

“I don’t even think that’s an important aspect of the game, quite obviously. We had tons of chances before that to tie it, and we blew it. We just can’t go down that much.”

Newport Harbor was down 7-3 late in the third quarter before beginning its rally. McKibbin scored with 19 seconds left in the quarter to put the Tars down just three.

David Linden then added a six-on-five goal with 2:43 left in the game. After good defense forced a Coronado shot-clock violation, Jorth scored to narrow the margin to 7-5.

“That was crunch time right there,” McKibbin said. “It’s always a good battle. I thought we got better in the game. But it’s definitely not the best feeling in the world, losing to them twice.”

Coronado added a six-on-five goal with 45 seconds left, but the Tars added a man-advantage goal of their own from McKibbin (a game-high four goals) with 27 seconds to go.

Jorth’s steal provided a last gasp of hope before the buzzer went off.

“We weren’t playing physical defense, and making just really bad decisions on offense [early in the game],” Lynch said. “But, I have to say that our second half was spectacular. We really started playing the way we’re capable of playing. I told them, ‘Why do you have to wait for your backs to get against the wall to play that way?’ ”

In the tournament semifinals, Newport Harbor got by Servite, 6-3, earlier Saturday. The Tars never trailed the game against the No. 2-ranked team in Division II, taking a 1-0 lead after a quarter on a shot from Brandon Parole that found the left corner.

Lynch said it was nice to see his team tighten its defense after allowing 10 goals in an overtime win over Harvard-Westlake, in the quarterfinals Friday.

“Better defense than last night, for sure,” Lynch said. “[Servite’s] difficult to play against because they’re unorthodox. It makes you play pretty good individual defense… Keeping two guys at half, making weird drives toward the goal, we don’t practice against that kind of stuff.”

The game went back and forth in the second quarter before Linden’s goal before the half gave the Sailors a 4-3 lead.

Linden then scored again from two meters to give Newport a 5-3 lead. Then, McKibbin stole the ball and scored with 3:03 left in the quarter to give Newport its final goal.

The game was very cleanly played, with both teams only earning a single ejection. The lone Sailors’ ejection led to Servite’s final goal with less than a minute to play.

“I don’t know that that was an ejection at the end,” Lynch said. “But [giving up] three or four goals, pretty solid.”

More than just solid for the Tars, who came within a couple of seconds of a possible tournament title. They just ran out of time.

“I’m not disappointed, I thought we played well in the second half,” Jorth said. “It gives us confidence. We know how we can play. We’ve just got to put it together for a full game, when it matters in November [at CIF playoffs].”

And, Lynch said, the second half of the game against Coronado definitely showed his top-ranked team in CIF Southern Section Division I just how well it could play.

“I think that we got more of that second half of water polo [against Coronado] than we did in the first three games of the tournament,” Lynch said.

S&R; Sport

Southern California Invitational

Championship game

Coronado 8, Newport Harbor 7

SCORE BY QUARTERS

NH – McKibbin 4, Jorth 2, Linden 1. Saves – Christian 9.

C – Smith 3, Johnson 2, Cook 1, Butler 1, Karoly 1. Saves – Parsons 4, Pokorny 4.

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or by e-mail at [email protected].