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Almost two weeks worth of coaching controversy wasn’t going deter Orange Lutheran’s girls water polo team on Thursday night.

An early-morning, wind-driven brush fire wasn’t going to deter Laguna Beach.

A higher seed from the powerful Surf League wasn’t going to deter Foothill.

Yes, No. 1-ranked Newport Harbor made it look easy but that wasn’t the theme for the first round of the inaugural CIF-SS Open Division playoffs.

The message was about overcoming, and Orange Lutheran sounded off.

Playing without recently-departed Coach Nestor Nunez, the third-seeded Lancers led rival Mater Dei start-to-finish in a 9-6 victory at Foothill.

Sophomore goalie Lauren Steele anchored the Lancers’ strong defensive performance with 15 saves while the senior duo Anna Pearson (UCLA) and Caitlin Cohen (USC) each recorded three goals and two assists.

Orange Lutheran (17-8) advanced to Wednesday’s semifinal against Laguna Beach just two days after learning that Nunez, suspended for Thursday because of multiple red cards, would no longer be coaching the girls or boys at Orange Lutheran.

“We all kind of came together as a team,” said Pearson, the Lancers’ co-captain with Delaney Palmer. “(Assistant coach Jake Snyder) was really positive and he just kept the flowing going so it didn’t really feel like anything changed for us. Obviously, it was a little bit distracting but I think we all stuck together.”

Orange Lutheran’s unity quickly surfaced in its power-play. The Lancers converted their first three chances en route to a 4 for 7 effort with the extra attacker.

Sixth-seeded Mater Dei (17-6), which upset Orange Lutheran for the Trinity League title last month, went 3 for 8.

Cohen said the Lancers’ 6-4 loss to Mater Dei in league wasn’t a driving motivation. Thursday was about advancing in the semifinals.

“That’s minuscule compared to the CIF title,” Cohen said of the Trinity League title. “You can’t focus on the past games. You have to focus on the future.”

The Open and Division 1-2 semifinals will be played at Woollett Aquatics Center on Wednesday.

No player was more focused than Steele. The sophomore made four saves against the power-play and a highlight reel-block in the second period against UCLA-bound Genoa Rossi, who made an excellent move at center toward the cage.

One of Steele’s teammates called her “Steele Wall” afterward.

“My fans really motivated me,” Steele said with a smile of the Mater Dei student section.

Highlight before half pic.twitter.com/ezbf1V5BUq

— Dan Albano (@ocvarsityguy) February 11, 2022

Nunez picked up his second red card of the season in the third-place match at the Newport Invitational on Jan. 29. The red card carried a three-game suspension, which he served against JSerra and Santa Margarita last week.

Thursday would have been the third game of the suspension but the school announced Nunez’s ouster on Tuesday without giving a specific reason.

“As a school, we just made the decision that we’re going to go in a different direction,” Orange Lutheran athletic director Vince Brown said of the Nunez’s departure. “Nestor is a great young man and he’s going to do really well in the world of water polo.”

Thursday likely marked the final match for Mater Dei coach Djoko Radunovic, who earlier announced his resignation because of his promotion to the head coach at Long Beach City College.

In other Open Division games:

Laguna Beach 9, San Marcos 8 (OT): Ava Houlahan scored late in regulation to force overtime and Charlotte Riches and Hannah Carver scored in overtime as the No. 2 seeded Breakers (24-5) rallied at Newport Harbor.

Laguna Beach competed after some of its players were evacuated from their homes earlier in the day because of a large brush fire. Breakers coach Ethan Damato said the players’ homes escaped damage.

Damato said he didn’t believe the fire affected his team’s play. “I think San Marcos playing well affected us,” he said of the Royals, who led by three goals at one point.

Junior Ava Stryker scored six goals for San Marcos.

Foothill 7, Los Alamitos 6: Orange Lutheran transfer Rachel Gazzaniga scored three goals, including the winner with five seconds left, to lift the visiting Knights past the No. 4  seeded Griffins. Foothill (16-10) will play Newport Harbor in the semifinals Wednesday.

Gazzaniga scored at center off an well-placed cross pass from the corner by Grace Cuozzo, also a transfer from Orange Lutheran.

.@Sports_Foothill girls water polo upsets LosAl in final seconds to reach Open Div semis @SOCALWPF @ocvarsity : Foothill water polo pic.twitter.com/GOC2PmUmlk

— Dan Albano (@ocvarsityguy) February 11, 2022

Goalie Alex Ortiz added seven saves for Foothill, which avenged two earlier losses to the Griffins, the third-place team the Surf League

Cal-bound Lindsey Harris scored twice for the Griffins, who led 6-5 with just over two minutes left in regulation. Sydney Maccabe of Foothill scored with 2:09 remaining to knot the score at 6.

Newport Harbor 16, Santa Margarita 7: Taylor Smith and Morgan Netherton each scored three goals and four others scored twice to lead the host Sailors (24-1) to their 17th consecutive victory.

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