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Boys’ Water Polo: Sage Hill dominates Estancia

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The Sage Hill School boys’ water polo team trains three days during the week at University High and one day at UC Irvine. The team has also worked out at a community pool.

On the days Sage Hill plays a game, it also travels.

Sage Hill doesn’t have a pool on campus, making every water polo function a road trip. Keeping track where the team practices or plays can be cumbersome for the Lightning. Many times players stay on campus to study or finish homework, before piling into cars to head to a late night practice.

On Wednesday, Sage Hill jumped into the pool in the afternoon for an Orange Coast League opener.

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The mileage hasn’t amounted to much success. Sage Hill went into the match winless. Technically, the Newport Coast-based private school was the home team, but it faced Estancia in Estancia’s pool.

The home-field advantage didn’t make a difference for Estancia. Sage Hill routed the Eagles, 17-3, earning its first victory of the season.

“I told the team coming in, ‘This is a big game, the biggest game of the year,’” Sage Hill Coach Tom Norton said.

“We started off real slow. The guys figured it out, [and we] ran a press. The second and third quarters were much better.”

Second or third is where Sage Hill (1-5) hopes to finish in league this year. The top three teams in league earn a berth into the CIF Southern Section Division 3 playoffs.

Sage Hill barely missed the postseason last year, finishing one game back of third-place Saddleback. Norton still remembers the game that cost the Lightning, a one-goal setback to Saddleback.

Norton’s side ran away from Estancia (3-7) in the second period. Sage Hill produced six goals in the period, half of them by freshman Zane Drobenko, and it went into halftime with a 9-2 lead.

Drobenko added a fourth goal in the fourth period, finishing with the team’s second-best goal total. Chris Wan wound up with half a dozen goals.

Drobenko’s older brother, Zachary, added three goals. Zachary split time in the goal and in the field. The senior made three saves, while giving up two goals, Chris DeFrenza and Kyle Fitzgerald each scored in the first half for Estancia. Zachary’s backup, Rachael Jaffe, allowed just one goal, which Gavin Kane put away in the fourth period. Kane’s goal ended a 12-0 run by the Lightning.

Estancia played without three seniors, not helping its cause to win a league game for the first time in three years. Estancia Coach John Carpenter said starters Eli Sperling and Cody Nelson, and Will Odell missed the match for personal reasons. Carpenter said the three would return to the team on Oct. 11, the final day of the Newport Rib Classic, which Costa Mesa and Santa Ana Valley play host to this season. The three-day tournament begins Monday, with Estancia facing Trabuco Hills and Sunny Hills in pool-play action, and it resumes Friday.

“Well, any time you take two starters out, that’s a third of the team. Yeah, it’s hard,” Carpenter said of not having Sperling, Nelson and Odell. “It’s a total different chemistry in there, but even with them out, we’ve been playing very well. We just didn’t play well today. [Sperling, Nelson and Odell not being here] wasn’t really a huge factor.

“Sage Hill just out-swam us, out-passed us, just outplayed us.”

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