Oilers edged in final

HUNTINGTON BEACH — Lauren Grupe dodged the defender flying at her at the top of the circle.

Then, she let one fly, and a split-second later it found the back of the net.

It was late in the first half, but the Newport Harbor High field hockey team had all the scoring it would need. The defense did the rest as the Sailors repeated as winners of the Los Angeles Field Hockey Assn. Tournament of Champions, 1-0 over Huntington Beach at Edison High.

The Oilers pushed back in the second half, earning four penalty short corners. But a Newport Harbor defense anchored by junior goalie Sydney King and also including seniors Zoie Wolfe and Lauren Rojas, as well as junior Madeline Storch, never gave in.

“They gave us some difficulties down inside our circle,” Sailors Coach Devon Kelly said. “They came up with some short corners that were very offensive, so that was a concern, but I think for the most part we played very good hockey against a very, very good team. They have a tremendous amount of depth and I’ve never taken them lightly. They have skill at every level: at keeper, at forward, at midfielder. We had to come up big.”

Huntington Beach (16-2) was the top-seeded team in the whole tournament and had a 2-1 record against Newport Harbor this year headed into the final. The Oilers had topped the Sailors (15-2-1) in their second Sunset League meeting Oct. 20, as well as the finals of the Orange County tournament Oct. 3.

But Newport Harbor came out on top for the second straight year thanks to Grupe’s goal, after what Kelly called a very “college-level” move in dodging the Oilers defender.

Kelly said she brought Claire Layton back to the midfield in the second half, which helped as the Oilers made a push to tie the game.

“We had some chances, we had some good crosses,” Huntington Beach Coach Cathy Van Doornum said. “We just didn’t get that touch up front. It was just a good game all-around. I thought we dominated, especially in the second half. We just didn’t finish.”

The Oilers thought they had a goal in the first half, after a cross from sophomore Lindsay Walter was hit into the Newport net. The ruling was that the shot was outside the circle, so the goal didn’t count.

“It was hard to tell from where we were,” Van Doornum said. “It doesn’t matter now. It’s always a good game with Newport. We beat them at our field to win league, we beat them to win a tournament. It just didn’t go our way today they still had a great season. We’ve won league three years in a row; we’ve had one league loss in three years.”

King was the hero for the Sailors last year in this game when she stopped the game’s final shot. This time around, she said she was so nervous that she nearly threw up before the game.

At the end, however, there she was, jumping up and down in the goalie gear as her teammates rushed to mob her again.

Huntington Beach seniors Meagen Good and Claire Prestridge were named to the all-tournament team, as was junior Jessica Van Arsdale. Van Doornum also highlighted the play of her center defender, senior Stephanie Walter.

Walter said she and the team still had so much fun this year.

“It was a great season,” Walter said. “My favorite part was that we had such a great team this year, and we really bonded and had great team chemistry We had 11 strong athletes on the field.”

Senior Lindsay Sebastian agreed.

“We didn’t have superstars this year,” Sebastian said. “That was different from the past couple of years. And there was nine seniors so we had a lot of leadership.”

She paused, smiling.

“A lot of leadership,” Sebastian said.