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The final tournament has come and gone and it was a busy four days for the boys at Newport Harbor. The team gathered for dinner at the home of Al & Teresa Duhoux on Thursday night before the tournament where they dined on tri-tip, twice baked potatoes and casear salad.
The opening day of the tournament started early for the 18s team - 7:00 am in Whittier. Their opponent was the Riptides, one of two teams in the tournament from the Miami Florida area. An hour later, with a 12-5 victory under their belts, the team gathered for a leisurely breakfast at the California Grill in Whittier. Fed and awake, the team slowly made its way back to Whittier for the 2nd game of the day against Pacific North West United at 12:50 pm. Another 12-5 victory put Newport in the Platinum bracket. The team would enjoy a long rest with Sunday's game starting at 1:00 pm in Whittier.
As the 18s were about to complete their first day of competition, the 16s were just starting at USC. The 12th seeded Newport boys would face the 37th seeded Clovis Bears, who they handily dispatched 11-3. Newport faced a surprising Foothill team in the second game of the day, falling 10-6. This forced Newport to play a third game and a shot at the Platinum bracket. The scheduled 8:30 pm game started late. Despite the long day, the Newport boys prevailed over Greenwhich 6-5 for a slot in the Platinum bracket.
With the teams divided into Platinum and Gold brackets, Sunday would feature two games of bracket play. Win 2 games and you are in the top 8. Lose one and you play for 9-16. Lose both games and you play for 17-24. First up for the 18s was Davis, a team they had faced in the Commerce tournament two weeks earlier. In a very physical game (a Davis player received a brutality), the Newport boys played their fast counter game and prevailed 11-3.
The second game for the 18s was against Regency. The now Division 1 rival would be a tough foe, especially with Regency's addition of two graduated seniors. The game was hard fought, but Newport made too many mistakes and fell 12-5.
The 16s faced Pacific North West United to start their day of Platinum bracket play. With a strong showing and a 9-8 victory in hand, the team then faced a very strong (and silver medal winning) Stanford. Despite their best efforts, the team fell 12-5 to wrap up the second day of competition.
After the 18s loss to Regency, team captain Andrew Duhoux organized a team dinner. The usual tired/hungry faces disappeared at the boys dined on pizza and watched The Mask. As you can tell, everyone had their fill.
For the third day of competition, the 18s traveled to the Rosebowl Aquatics Center for a 10:00 am game against an older and much larger Stockton team. Speed and conditioning prevailed as Newport advanced with a 11-5 victory. The win meant the boys would not play until 6:00 pm in Commerce against Rosebowl. The "Chloritorium" would not treat the team well and they fell to Rosebowl 8-5.
The 16s started their 3rd day of competition back at USC with a match against the SoCal Black team - an all-start team stacked with some of the best 16s in the county. With too many weapons to counter, the Newport boys fell 13-5. The second match of the day pitted Newport against the North San Diego Stars. The boys bounced back from the earlier loss and prevailed 13-8.
The final day of competition would only feature one game. The 18s faced Long Beach Shores at the Rosebowl Aquatics Center. Shores came out quickly and put a few points on the board, leading Newport 8-5 at the half. Newport turned up the defense and held Shores scoreless in the second half, but could not completely erase the gap and lost 8-7. Newport ended up taking 12th place in their Platinum division.
The 16s ended their tournament at Los Altos High School with a 6-5 victory over Clovis to take 13th place in the Platinum division.
Pictures of all the 18s games (sorry, not the last game) can be found at the Newport Harbor Aquatics Photo Site. With the completion of play, the teams now enjoy a 3-week break before returning to practice on August 25.
