CIF SOUTHERN SECTION DIVISION I CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW:

Northwood is looking for its first-ever CIF title in boys’ water polo, while Newport Harbor seeks its 12th.

But a close game is expected tonight at 7 when the teams face off in the CIF Southern Section Division I championship game at Irvine High.

The top-seeded Sailors (26-3) are trying to win their first CIF championship since 2000.

Newport Harbor has been the top-ranked team in Division I ever since beating El Toro in the South Coast Tournament championship game on Sept. 22. Newport Harbor topped the Chargers again, 9-8, in the Division I semifinals on Wednesday.

Senior captain Clinton Jorth (68 goals) leads the team in scoring, followed closely by fellow senior Colin McKibbin with 64 goals. But anyone in the water for Newport Harbor can score, as the Tars showed Wednesday when six different players — Jorth, McKibbin, Matt Russell, Brandon Parole, Andy Hayes and David Linden — each found the back of the cage.

“We have very balanced scoring,” Coach Jason Lynch said. “The whole thing we’re trying to promote is that we are a good team. We definitely have balance and play for each other, and that’s nice.”

No. 2-seeded Northwood (16-10) tied Foothill and El Toro for the Sea View League championship, but earned the No. 1 league designation for the playoffs. The Timberwolves also survived a nailbiter in its semifinal, outlasting Los Alamitos, 6-5, on Travis Noll’s goal with 17 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

Noll, a senior who has scored 94 goals this season, and senior teammate Jon Colton (52 goals) lead the Timberwolves’ attack.

The teams have played before this season, in a nonleague game on Oct. 9 that the Sailors won, 8-7, in the fourth overtime on McKibbin’s goal. McKibbin also scored the game-tying goal with a second left in regulation of that contest.

“Northwood’s going to be another good game,” Sailors goalie Myles Christian said. “When we played them last time, it definitely wasn’t our best game. They’re kind of like El Toro, they have two standout players. It should be good.”

With the standout play of Caleb Hamilton, the 2006 CIF Southern Section Division I Player of the Year who is now at Pepperdine, Northwood made it to the Division I title game last year before losing to El Toro. But the Timberwolves have never won a CIF championship in boys’ water polo since the school was founded in 1999.

Newport Harbor, by comparison, has a rich tradition. The Sailors have won 11 CIF titles since 1967, when former boys’ coach and current girls’ coach Bill Barnett won his first one.

In an 18-year stretch from 1967 through ’84, Newport Harbor won 10 CIF titles under the coaching of Barnett. The Sailors were especially dominant in the late 1970s, when they reeled off five titles in six years from 1975-80.

But since the ’84 season, Newport Harbor has won just one CIF title, when former coach Brian Kreutzkamp led the 2000 team to the Division I crown. And, since 2000, Newport Harbor has been to the title game just once — in 2005 the Sailors lost to Long Beach Wilson, 14-11.

Jorth, a four-year varsity starter, is the lone remaining player from that team. But Jorth never played in that title game, after suffering season-ending facial fractures during a nonleague game against El Toro earlier that year.

Lynch, who became the Sailors’ coach in 2001 after spending seven years coaching at Capistrano Valley High, does know what it feels like to win a CIF title. He did it in 1992, when he led Costa Mesa to the Division III title over Trabuco Hills in the championship game.

Tonight, his Sailors realize that they’re the favorites. They’re ready to show why.

“I feel like we want it more than any other team,” Matt Russell said. “All the seniors just want it so bad. I am totally focused on getting them there. I am totally focused on getting my team there.”

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