Newport edges Los Al

NEWPORT BEACH — Bill Barnett has been coaching at Newport Harbor High for almost half a century. When a water polo team loses a key player in a crucial game, he has seen it deflate teams.

The Sailors found themselves in that tough spot at home Wednesday night in the biggest Sunset League girls’ game of the season.

For the first 18 minutes, Barnett had Kate Klippert in the league opener and a two-goal lead against Los Alamitos.

Klippert exited with less than three minutes left in the third period after picking up her third exclusion. The Sailors played without the UC Berkeley-bound senior in the final 10 minutes of regulation and six minutes of overtime.

“I don’t think anything changed after Kate got out,” said Colleen McCall, except that “we just wanted to win even more.”

McCall and the Sailors were resilient. The senior made her second appearance since suffering second-degree burns on her right arm during a cooking accident in December.

The arm, covered in silver duct tape below and above the elbow, felt as good as it possibly could. It was McCall burning the Griffins as she scored three goals and led the Sailors to a 6-5 victory, handing Los Alamitos its first loss of the season.

The Sailors (8-1) are in position to win their fourth straight Sunset League championship since joining the league in 2006-07. They received contributions from everyone in the water, from goalie Krissy Burger’s 11 saves, to Kaleigh Gilchrist’s physical play down low, to Catherine Carpenter’s defense, to Katie Jackson taking advantage of the one opportunity to knock out the Griffins (11-1).

Newport Harbor’s counterattack was the key to the success. That is how the Sailors recorded their final three goals, including the game-winner from an unlikely source.

Jackson, a defender, was the one who found the back of the net with 51 seconds left in the first three-minute period in overtime. Carpenter drew an exclusion on a counter, setting up Jackson’s power-play goal.

Jackson made sure the Sailors were not about start the New Year the way they ended 2009, losing in the Holiday Cup final at home.

“This is much more important,” said Jackson, who added two steals and an assist. “We knew it was going to be a really, really hard game, but I think we were hoping to beat them [in the] fourth quarter.”

The Sailors, ranked No. 2 in the CIF Southern Section Division I preseason coaches’ poll, couldn’t finish the No. 3 Griffins in 28 minutes.

With Klippert gone, Los Alamitos’ Kaley Dodson gave Newport Harbor headaches during a two-minute stretch, which included the end of the third period and start of the fourth. The Stanford-bound senior buried three straight goals, tying the game at 5-5 with 6:06 left in the fourth.

Dodson also guarded Newport Harbor’s biggest threat in the pool in Gilchrist. She blocked one of Gilchrist’s vicious shots midway through the fourth.

With the help of teammates, the USC-bound Gilchrist found ways to shut out Dodson the rest of the way.

When Dodson’s younger sister, Cory, touched the ball inside five meters, Madison McLaren poked the ball out and Burger came up with the loose ball with 37 seconds to go in the second overtime period. Twenty-five seconds later, the Griffins earned one more shot to even things up.

Los Alamitos went to the younger Dodson. The junior attempted the final shot from far out and it sailed wide left, leaving Coach Dave Carlson to settle for the Griffins’ best league match against Newport Harbor in four years.

“That’s one of the tough things about coming out and playing the No. 1 team in [Orange County] right off the bat,” said Carlson, whose team saw Burger stop a five-meter penalty shot and the Sailors slow down the Griffins’ power play (three for six). “I thought both teams played like champions.”