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Ben Palitz led CDM to its ninth straight win over Newport Harbor in the 2014 version of the Battle of the Bay. Palitz, a junior attackman, ended the day with four goals and two assists to lead all Sea King scorers.

"Ben played very well today," said CDM head coach G.W. Mix. "He has been such a solid performer for us all season long. He does whatever we ask of him and does it well."

Palitz, previously a midfielder, moved to attack in the wake of an injury to sophomore attackman Jordan Greenhall.

"We shifted Ben down low in the first quarter of the San Clemente game," Mix added. "That is not an easy transition to make and he has handled the additional reesponsibility very well ever since."

The Sea Kings jumped out to a 5-0 lead behind two Palitz goals and one each from Stephen Von Der Ahe (So./Midfield), Jason Simaan (So./Midfield) and Sherwin Gersten (Jr./Midfield). 

Harbor scored its first goal of the game with 8 minutes remaining in the half, but CDM scored off the ensuing face-off and ran off 4 unanswered goals to take a 9-1 lead into the lockerroom at half-time. In addition to Simaan's second goal, Palitz added a pair and assisted on Noah Howe's first of the game. Howe (Jr./Attack) finished the game with 2 goals and an assist).

Throughout the day, Jason Simaan continued his dominance in the face-off category. The sophomore won 15 of 17 draws (.882%) and created a number of fast break scoring opportunities for the host Sea Kings. He converted two of those fast breaks himself, scoring his third and fourth goals of the season.

The second half lacked much of the energy and intensity of the first two quarters. Down 9-1, Newport Harbor elected to play a zone defense, allowing the Sea Kings to maintain offensive possession for extended periods of time without much defensive pressure throughout the third quarter. Despite the slower pace, CDM was able to methodically increase its lead to 13-2.

"We were a bit surprised to see a zone. It's pretty unusual under the circumstances. We were in no hurry to score more goals, so we just played with patience. We were more than happy to just possess the ball at that point."

Noah Howe added his second goal with less than three minutes remaining in the third quarter increasing the margin to 10-1. After a Newport goal a minute later, CDM opened the fourth quarter with two quick goals from Jay Damon (Sr./Midfield) and Nino Chavez (Jr. Attack).

With the score 12-2, the Sea Kings took the opportunity to get everyone involved for the balance of the fourth quarter.

Right on cue, sophomore attackman Nick Yi found the back of the net and CDM led 13-2.

Newport notched a pair of goals late in the fourth quarter after the Sea Kings made kingdom-wide substitutions, making the final score 13-4.

With the win, Corona del Mar improves it's record over Newport Harbor to 9-0 (since boys lacrosse became a CIF sport at both schools in 2007) and head coach G.W. Mix's career mark against the Sailors grows to 6-0.

The Corona Del Mar Sea Kings upended Los Alamitos 12-2 to improve to 5-0.

Trevor Tierney blog "THE "BEST TEAM" MAY NOT BE WHAT IS BEST FOR OUR KIDS"

CDM alumni, 15 strong, defeated the current team 10-6 on Saturday, November 30.