Schiefer steps up to upset Harbor

CORONA DEL MAR — Five days before his last shot to make history at Corona del Mar High, Brian Schiefer didn’t start.

Coach Barry O’Dea sat the senior.

No one had to tell Schiefer of his struggles in boys’ water polo. Somehow he needed to get out of a two-week rut before the Battle of the Bay game.

Seeing how teammates played without him actually helped.

The days leading up to the crosstown rivalry match against Newport Harbor there was one thing Schiefer constantly thought about.

“I really wanted to beat them,” said Schiefer, not only for his satisfaction, but also O’Dea’s. “Since he’s been here and since I’ve been here we’ve never beat them.

“I didn’t want to be in the [class] that didn’t beat them.”

Schiefer isn’t. The Class of 2009 can proudly say it beat Newport Harbor.

Schiefer made sure by recording four goals and two steals, helping the Sea Kings upset the visiting Sailors, 10-8, Saturday night.

O’Dea best described the performance turned in by Schiefer against Newport Harbor, ranked No. 6 in the CIF Southern Section Division I poll.

“Schiefer played the game of his life,” O’Dea said. “He came out of his shell.”

CdM (13-7), ranked No. 8, did as well, beating Newport Harbor (14-6) for the first time in O’Dea’s four years as the head coach.

The Sea Kings looked nothing like the team the Sailors easily beat twice in tournament play this season.

CdM never allowed Newport Harbor, the defending CIF Division I champion, to jump out to a big lead like in the previous matches.

The biggest advantage for the Sailors was one goal.

But after going ahead at the start of the first and second periods, Coach Jason Lynch said his Sailors “were always playing catch-up.”

It resulted in lapses. The Sea Kings capitalized.

Schiefer and Lucas Reynolds scored goals in a span of 3 minutes, 10 seconds, putting CdM ahead, 6-4, before intermission.

“I told these guys, ‘I think it’s hard to beat a team three times in a row in the same season,’” said Lynch, adding he’s only lost to CdM twice in his eight years as the Newport Harbor head coach. “We pretty much hammered them two times. I said, ‘This is their home game. This is a big deal. They had never beaten us. They’re going to come out really fired up and play really hard and you got to be able to match that.’

“We just didn’t. They wanted it a lot more. Their intensity was greater than ours.”

The Sea Kings ended the Sailors’ six-match winning streak.

The streak started on Oct. 11, when Newport Harbor defeated CdM, 12-5, at the Southern California Tournament, where the Sailors went on to place fifth in Irvine.

It was the second time Newport Harbor finished fifth at an event, the other at the South Coast Tournament, where the host Sailors accomplished the feat by beating CdM, 10-6, on Sept. 27.

“Our team was tired of losing to our rival,” CdM’s Max Bergeson said.

O’Dea has always been able to count on Bergeson to score.

He needed more than his deadly left-handed shot.

The day before the match, Bergeson approached O’Dea.

“I said to him, ‘I need you to take us through and lead us to the win,’ ” O’Dea said. “He said, ‘I’m going to do it.’ That’s the first time in a long time that he’s actually come to me and said, ‘I’m going to do [it].’ ”

Bergeson raised his game by scoring two of his three goals in the first half, but also by being vocal.

When Newport Harbor’s Andy Hayes scored on a power-play 45 seconds into the third period and cut the lead to 6-5 with the first of his two goals, Bergeson stepped in.

“He was the calming presence,” O’Dea said.

The Sea Kings responded, getting goals from Bergeson and Jim Krolopp to build a three-goal lead, CdM’s biggest in the game.

The two other times the Sea Kings led by that much, Schiefer was the reason in the final period.

One time, Schiefer was closer to the middle of the pool than the cage. He still scored, beating the 30-second shot clock and the goalie with a skip shot.

“I just wanted to throw the ball as hard as I could,” Schiefer said, “so there’s no way his arm could block it.”

There was no stopping Schiefer from making history for himself and his coach.

Nonleague

Corona del Mar 10,

Newport Harbor 8

SCORE BY QUARTERS

NH – Hayes 2, Linden 2, Russell 2, Kelly 1, Yeager 1. Saves – Holbrook 8.

CdM – Schiefer 4, Bergeson 3, Taylor 1, Reynolds 1, Krolopp 1.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at [email protected].