Prep football: Dead ahead

Barry Faulkner

NEWPORT BEACH - Along with a chin strap and a face mask, it appears

blinders also come as standard equipment on a Newport Harbor High

football helmet.

How else to explain the Sailors’ seeming inability to focus on

anything but the next opponent on the schedule?

If a headgear accessory were all that it took, of course, other

programs would have them stocked in ample supply. So, any analysis of

Harbor players’ one-track minds, must be traced to the teachings of

15-year head coach Jeff Brinkley.

Coming off a 13-0-1 season that produced the school’s second CIF

Southern Section (Division VI) championship, Brinkley will count upon

this familiar fixation with the immediate future to keep last year’s

spoils in proper perspective.

“Winning a CIF championship can be good and bad,” Brinkley said,

“although it’s certainly better than the alternative. One of the things

it does is, it definitely motivates some teams that are going to play

you.

“But, I think our philosophy of always going one game at a time helps

us there. We’re usually extremely focused because, if you’re not, someone

can sneak up on you and bite you in the butt.”

Brinkley hopes his first team of the new millennium will be able to

avoid any metaphoric teeth marks. And, concentration willing, there

appears to be enough talent to continue the run which capped the most

successful of the program’s seven decades.

For starters, Daily Pilot Sea View League Most Valuable Player Chris

Manderino returns as a two-way starter.

Additionally, Newport-Mesa District Defensive Player of the Year Alan

Saenz, who was also All-CIF in Division VI, is back to anchor an

experienced linebacking corps.

Senior defensive end Garrett Troncale, a hero in both victories over

Irvine last season, including forcing the fumble that led to the

game-winning touchdown in the 19-18 CIF title-game triumph, also returns.

The first-team All-Sea View League and All-Newport-Mesa District

performer will line up alongside returning defensive tackle Nick

Moghaddam.

Travis Trimble, a second-team all-league selection, is back at

fullback and senior Santa Margarita transfers Scott Lopez (offensive

tackle) and Ian Banigan (defensive end), both of whom started for the

Eagles in ‘99, figure to help limit losses to graduation in the trenches.

Graduation also claimed the entire secondary and all but two offensive

starters, and Brinkley acknowledges inexperience is his leading concern.

But Brinkley, with the support of an experienced and cohesive staff,

hasn’t produced 77 wins since 1992, the second-best total among Orange

County public schools (Los Alamitos has 91), without being able to

develop capable replacements.

The linebacking corps, which includes Manderino and senior Andy

Rankin, who gained seasoning as a backup last fall, keys a group which

led the county in scoring defense (10.6 points per game) last season. It

was the lowest average allowed by the Tars in Brinkley’s tenure, the

lowest for the Tars since 1971. The defense was also chiefly responsible

for a plus-18 turnover ratio.

Offensively, the challenge will be finding a replacement for the late

Andre Stewart, who graduated posthumously after a fatal car accident last

May. Darting behind an all-senior offensive line, which included current

Division I tackles Blair Jones (USC) and Robert Cole (Brown), Stewart

rushed for a school single-season record 2,404 yards, including 13 games

of at least 100, and scored 26 touchdowns.

Ironically, that replacement may be Manderino, who won all 12 games he

started at quarterback in ‘99, after guiding an unbeaten junior varsity

team as a sophomore.

As fall drills progressed toward Friday’s 10 a.m. scrimmage at Mission

Viejo, Brinkley was wrestling with whether his offensive would be better

served with Manderino, the All-Newport-Mesa quarterback last fall,

delivering handoffs or receiving them.

Manderino threw for 912 yards and 12 touchdowns last season (54 of 124

with eight interceptions) and rushed for 213 yards and six TDs. At

6-foot-1, 205 pounds, he brings the kind of power, pace and purpose other

tailback candidates can’t match. But, his leadership under center and his

ability to turn broken plays into positive yardage, would be missed

should junior Morgan Craig assume the quarterback job.

Either way, Brinkley said he will make a decision before the opener

and stick with it.

Regardless of where Manderino lines up, it will be difficult for the

Tars to match last year’s offensive production: nearly 3,800 of their

4,818 yards on the ground and 442 points, the second-most in school

history (behind a district-record 493 in ‘96).

A scan of the schedule indicates a strong possibility the Sailors can

extend their unbeaten streak against teams outside the Sea View League

(now at 29 games, dating back to 1995). The Tars, on a 12-game win skein

after a Week 2 tie with Marina, also have a chance to break the

school-record 16-game winning streak (including one forfeit) established

in 1994-95.

As usual, however, the Sea View will provide a rugged challenge, with

Irvine joining Harbor and Laguna Hills, which won the freshmen and junior

varsity league titles in ‘99, atop the list of favorites.