Boys water polo: Sea Kings wins Newport tournament

NEWPORT BEACH - Corona del Mar High’s boys 18-and-under water polo

team blasted through the Newport tournament to capture the championship

at Newport Harbor last weekend.CdM (9-1) defeated Coronado of San Diego,

10-9, in a thrilling sudden-death championship game to go undefeated in

the tournament with five wins.

CdM erased an 8-6 Coronado lead in the fourth quarter to send the game

into overtime.

Marcello Pantuliano got the winning goal for CdM 4:31 into sudden-death.

It was his second of the game and 10th of the tournament.

Garrett Bowlus had three goals in the championship game for CdM. Michael

March contributed two and Sea King goalie Sherwin Kim made 12 saves to

hold off Coronado.

Bowlus led CdM in the tournament with 13 goals. He scored five times

against San Clemente, the only team to beat CdM this summer, to lead the

Sea Kings to an 8-4 victory. Kim made 10 saves against San Clemente.

In the first game, CdM came back with two goals in the fourth quarter for

a 7-6 victory over Los Alamitos. Pantuliano led the Sea Kings with three

goals.

In the second game, CdM pounded East E, 17-6. Bobby Messenger paced the

Sea Kings with four goals. Bowlus, Pantuliano and Artie Dorr contributed

three goals each for the Sea Kings.

The Sea Kings jumped out early in the third game, en route to a 9-5 win

over Ventura. March and Dorr each had two goals for CdM.

March was third on the Sea Kings’ squad with seven goals in the

tournament, while Dorr had six. Kim ended up with 33 saves in the

tournament.

The CdM B team team, which is the Sea Kings’ frosh-soph squad, went 2-2

in the tournament, good for fifth place.

The Sea Kings won their first game against Dana Point, 11-6. John Mann

led with four goals and John Money had two. CdM goalie Beau Stockstill

had the game’s highlight with a goal in the first quarter.

After an 11-1 loss to Foothill and a 13-1 setback to San Clemente, CdM

won its final game, 11-8, over East E., behind a team-high six goals from

Mann.

Jason DiRocco contributed two scores for CdM in its final game.

For the tournament, Mann led CdM with 11 goals and DiRocco was second on

the team with five goals.

Stockstill had 21 saves in the tournament and Tyler Brundage made six

saves in the last two games.

The games were played with six-minute quarters, as opposed to seven for

regular high school games.