Prep football: Back Bay birthday bash

Barry Faulkner

NEWPORT BEACH - Offense, defense and, for the most part, special

teams. Newport Harbor High’s 47-7 nonleague football victory over Back

Bay rival Corona del Mar Friday night was ostensibly the total package.

And for Sailors Coach Jeff Brinkley, it came wrapped with a birthday

bow, as his team came within two failed PATs of giving him a point for

every candle on his cake.

It was the first time Newport played on Brinkley’s birthday since

1989, but the result that night, a 7-6 loss to Huntington Beach, was

hardly worth celebrating.

This time, there was little for Brinkley to quibble with after the

Battle of the Bay XL, which played out before an estimated 7,000, many of

whom entered after halftime.

“I went out the back door of the locker room at halftime and was

shocked to see a line of people still waiting to buy tickets,” Brinkley

said. “And it was a really long line. It was great to see that kind of

community support.”

Hopefully, the latecomers were more interested in the social scene

than the outcome of the game, which was all but academic after the

Sailors’ 28-0 first-half dominance.

The third quarter featured more of the same, as the Sailors began

shuffling in substitutes with little drop-off in productivity.

Junior backup quarterback Mike McDonald completed all five of his

passes for 59 yards and a touchdown.

Junior Rhett Hartsfield, the No. 2 tailback, collected 65 rushing

yards and one touchdown after entering early in the third quarter and

several other Sailors saw their first varsity action.

“It’s always nice to those guys get on the field, because they work so

hard in practice,” Brinkley said of the reserves.

As for the starters, Brinkley was complimentary on both sides of the

ball.

“I liked the way our guys were flying to the ball on defense,” he

said. “(The Sea Kings) had been scoring some points and had run and

thrown the ball well their first two games. We had to defend the whole

field, against a lot of different looks. I thought our defensive staff

did a good job getting the kids ready to make those adjustments.

“Offensively, we had hoped to establish the run and I thought we did

that. We ran it so well, we didn’t need to throw it that much. We didn’t

get to many third-down situations (just two on their first four touchdown

drives and one of those was third and inches).

Brinkley, however, was disappointed about surrendering a 27-yard fake

punt pass for a first down. In addition, CdM blocked one conversion kick

and another Harbor PAT failed when the center-holder exchange went awry.

Brinkley singled out his kickoff coverage team for its strong work,

including kicker Adam Kerns. On eight kickoffs, CdM’s average field

position was its own 24. Twice Newport tackled the CdM return man inside

his own 20 and Kerns boomed one kickoff out of the end zone for a

touchback. Dave Erickson (twice), Matt Encinias and safety Ben Soza made

some of those stops on kickoff coverage.

Brinkley is pleased with his 2-0-1 team’s play thus far, especially

since all three games have been on the road.

“If we can keep doing well on the road, I really think it will help us

in the long run,” Brinkley said. “We’re getting used to traveling and

we’re going to have more home games later in the season.”