Northwood stirs up Sea View race, stuns Huntington Beach

Northwood’s boys water polo team tightened the Sea View League race by upsetting visiting Huntington Beach, 8-7, in overtime on Wednesday at Northwood.

Kyle Kim-E snapped a 7-7 tie by scoring with 1:01 left in overtime on a cross pass by Jack Mayers.

Mayers, a left-handed sophomore attacker, also zipped a cross-pool pass to Dustin Hayashi on the tying goal with 1:38 left.

Northwood sealed the victory by forcing a turnover on a ball under call at center with nine seconds left. The Timberwolves (12-8, 2-1) moved into a three-way tie for second-place with Foothill (2-1 in league) and Huntington Beach (18-5, 2-1).

“We feel good but it shouldn’t have been so close,” said Northwood goalie James Hartshorne, who had 13 saves and two steals.

Huntington Beach goalie Michael Bailey and the Oilers’ counterattack helped make the score tight.

Bailey racked up 19 saves. The Oilers, tied for 10th in CIF-SS Division I, led 3-2 at halftime but turned up their counterattack in the third. Their speed drew an ejection that led to an extra-man strike by Griffin Camps, who made it 4-2 with 4:31 left. Max Schultz added a counterattack goal later in third as the Oilers opened a 5-2 lead.

Northwood cut the lead to 5-4 by the end of the third but trailed, 6-4, with less than three minutes left in the fourth. Hayashi sparked the rally by scoring on a backhander out of center with 2:37 left. Mayers then tied the score, 6-6, with 51 seconds left on a perimeter strike.

Huntington Beach scored first in overtime as Patrick Shearer blasted a counterattack chance in off the bottom of the cross-post in the first extra frame. But in the second overtime, Mayers’ passing was the critical. “He threaded that ball,” Northwood coach Ed Carrera said of Mayers’ game-winning assist.

Mayers finished with two goals and four assists. Kim-E and Hayashi each had three goals.

Jameson Shively and Sean Longdin each scored two for the Oilers. “It was a big game for us,” Huntington Beach coach Brian Anderson said. “If you look at the numbers, we played OK. We just couldn’t finish.”

In the Pacific Coast League:

Beckman 7, Laguna Hills 3: Kevin Zepfel scored three goals and Keith Corbalis had 11 saves to lead the host Patriots (10-9, 2-1), who moved into second place.