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The562’s coverage of Long Beach Wilson Athletics is sponsored by Joel Bitonio, Class of 2009.
The Wilson girls’ water polo team qualified for the CIF Southern Section Open Division, the toughest playoff bracket in the entire nation. The Bruins, seeded sixth out of eight teams, played an appropriately tough game on the road Thursday in their playoff opener against Newport Harbor (in a game hosted at Corona del Mar). Wilson hung tough with the Sailors in the first half, trailing by just a goal at the break, but Newport Harbor pulled away in the second half to win it 12-8.
With the new Open Division format, all eight teams who made the bracket are guaranteed three games, with the two pool play winners advancing to the championship. Wilson will travel to Orange Lutheran on Wednesday next week and then host Foothill the following Tuesday, Feb. 18.
“It’s our first time doing this format, and it hit me that I’ve got to coach it like a CIF final,” said Wilson coach Barry O’Dea. “I’ve coached a lot of Finals–there really is that feel to all three games. So you approach it that way.”
The Bruins played the higher-seeded Sailors tough on the road, staying within a goal until the Sailors eventually wore down their office in the second half. Newport Harbor outscored the Bruins 6-2 in the second half until a late Wilson goal cut the margin.
“I thought we played really well and our gameplan was working pretty well,” said O’Dea.
The Bruins did a great job defensively of containing the Sailors’ counter attack, slowing down the game in the first half and drawing exclusions to set up scores. The Sailors scored the game’s first goal but Olivia Garcia equalized for Wilson on an assist from Angeliki Arroyo. The Sailors retook the lead on the next possession on a nice pass across the goal.
Trailing by one after the first, the Bruins scored on a man-up opportunity on their first possession of the second quarter, as Cici De Luca put it home to tie it at 2-2. The rest of the quarter was a seesaw, with Wilson falling behind but scoring to tie it each time, with goals by De Luca, Reece Haga, and Arroyo. Each time Wilson was able to pull even, though, it seemed like the Sailors pulled away, as they did with a score by Addison Ting to take a 6-5 halftime lead.
The Bruins got three of their five goals in the first half on man-up opportunities.
“We wanted to take away their counter attacks and take advantage in the 6 on 5s,” said O’Dea. “So we drew a lot of exclusions and did pretty well–we had a couple others spinning on the goal line.”
In the second half, the Sailors pulled away. Wilson scored on a nice inside move from Haga to tie it at 6-6 early, but it was virtually all Newport Harbor the rest of the way. Sutton Harrington scored back-to-back goals on the near side of the cage to take an 8-6 lead, and Wilson was never again able to draw even with Newport Harbor.
Wilson was led by two goals apiece from Haga, De Luca, Garcia, and Arroyo. Newport Harbor got a hat trick apiece from Emerson Mulvey and Harrington. The Sailors will face Foothill next Wednesday back at CdM at 6pm.
