Boys water polo: Griffins top Sailors, 7-6

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - It isn’t easy inheriting the expectations of a

defending CIF Southern Section Division I champion as a first-year coach.

And, for Newport Harbor High boys water polo coach Jason Lynch, the

new waters didn’t get any more comfortable Saturday night against one of

the best players in Orange County, Los Alamitos’ Tyler Drake.

Drake dominated one-on-one play and led the visiting Griffins to a 7-6

nonleague victory. But teams are ranked in an Orange County Top-10 poll.

After Newport Harbor (10-10) tied the game, 3-3, early in the third

quarter on Brent Armstrong’s goal, Los Alamitos (13-9) scored three

straight goals and never looked back.

“That Tyler Drake kid had a pretty good game (with five goals),” Lynch

said. “He did a lot of one-on-one stuff and our individual defense is

lacking at times. He kind of made the difference for them, but we kind of

helped him out, too, with mental errors on our part.”

Drake, who scored two of Los Alamitos’ three goals in the first half

as the Griffins took a 3-2 halftime lead, scored an extra-man goal with

5:02 left in the third quarter on an assist by Kevin Bradley to put the

Griffins in front to stay, 4-3.

On the Griffins’ next trip down, Bradley and Drake perfected the

two-man game again on a give-and-go as Drake scored with 4:12 remaining

in the third.

Early in the fourth, Bradley juked two Newport players in the hole to

score from two meters and give the visitors a comfortable 6-3 lead.

Jay Thompson scored three goals to lead Newport Harbor, while

Armstrong added two and Michael Bury one.

Thompson, who scored in the first quarter on a pass from Ross

Sinclair, scored with 1:34 left in the game to cut Los Alamitos’ lead to

7-5, then scored again with 0:05 to play to make it a one-goal

difference.