Newport smashes back, 35-3.

Barry Faulkner

NEWPORT BEACH - The Corona del Mar High football team brought a new

league affiliation and a slightly new offensive look into Friday’s Battle

of the Bay XXXVIII against Newport Harbor before an overflow crowd of

5,200 at the Sailors’ field.

But after the Sea Kings capped a 10-play opening drive with a 39-yard

Rory McKeever field goal, everything the designated hosts did seemed to

suit the Sailors just fine.

The result was a 35-3 nonleague triumph for Harbor, keeping the Tars

(2-0-1) unbeaten and the Sea Kings winless, and extending Newport’s

series lead to 26-12.

“They came out in a different (double tight end) attack,” Newport Coach

Jeff Brinkley said of the Sea Kings, who deployed the pitch-left,

pitch-right mentality which will help them fit in perfectly in the

Pacific Coast League.

After some initial success, however, Harbor began stacking defenders near

the line. And, when CdM starting quarterback Matt Moore left the game for

good after the Sea Kings’ second series with a rig cage injury and

potentially damaged spleen, CdM’s fate was virtually sealed. Moore was

taken to the hospital to check for spleen damage, said CdM team doctor R.

Stephen Jennings.

CdM threw seven times, using four different passers, but did not complete

a pass. Left to tee off between the tackles, the Harbor defense limited

their cross-town rivals to just two first downs the final three quarters.

“They were running that Tustin stuff, where they pull the backside

(linemen) and try to get a lot of bodies coming up through the hole,”

Brinkley said. “I told our kids there would be a lot of emotion early on,

but I wanted them to just stay with the thing, settle in, and just keep

playing hard. Whatever we did, I didn’t want (CdM) to play harder than we

did, which is what happened last year (a 28-18 Sea King win). Our kids

did a good job of not letting that happen.”

Instead, Newport senior tailback Andre Stewart, with the help of

offensive linemen Blair Jones, Steve Wukawitz, Luis Cruz, Nick Haddy,

Robert Cole, tight end Nick Langsdorf and fullbacks Mike Tunney and

Travis Trimble, made plenty of good things happen for Tars.

Stewart capped a nine-play, 61-yard touchdown drive with a 3-yard scoring

run with 8:28 left in the first half for all the Sailors would need.

Stewart, however, added an exclamation point after Chris Manderino forced

a CdM fumble and teammate Dane Pfaff recovered at the Sea Kings’ 39.

Stewart took the second-down handoff, bounced around the left corner and

sprinted past pursuing defenders for a 39-yard TD jaunt. Chris Bargas

toed the second of five conversion kicks for a 14-3 lead, but CdM wasn’t

finished quite yet.

The Sea Kings caught a break when an apparent 63-yard TD run by Ryan

Brill was called back for holding with 2:29 left before intermission.

They then recovered an onside kick to open the second half.

Harbor’s defense, keyed by middle linebacker Alan Saenz, outside ‘backer

Manderino and many others, made the first of two fourth-and-short stops

and Manderino, making his first varsity start at quarterback, scrambled

63 yards to paydirt to make it 21-3.

Stewart, who finished with 139 yards on 22 carries, and senior tailback

Ryan Brill (65 yards on 11 attempts) added scoring runs for the winners,

who amassed a season-high 354 rushing yards.

Ryan Ortega (66 yards on 12 carries) helped pad the ground assault, which

Manderino complemented with two first-half pass completions to Justin

Jacobs for 38 and 11 yards.

“We played with them for a quarter and a half,” CdM Coach Dick Freeman

said. “Then, we started running out of people.

“(Stewart) is a good back, but our lack of tackling didn’t help us play

the kind of football we need to to win.”

Senior CdM tailback Grant Estabrook hammered away for 77 yards on 25

carries, but CdM’s two turnovers, and Harbor’s defensive adjustments,

proved too formidable.

Kelsey Peterson, starting at safety for senior two-way star Billy Clayton

(who did not dress with a quadriceps injury which could sideline him

another couple weeks), had an interception.

Saenz said his defensive mates were up for CdM’s smashmouth approach.

“I love it,” he said of the between-the-tackles running game. “It’s a

challenge, but that’s the great thing about football.”

Stewart said his linemen adopted a smashmouth mentality of their own.

“They helped me get the rhythm and the flow and the next thing you knew,

we were scoring touchdowns.”