Prep football: Sailors escape, 14-9.

Barry Faulkner

ALISO VIEJO - Newport Harbor High quarterback Morgan Craig might

have done only minimal damage throwing spirals Friday night. But with the

Sea View League football opener on the line against host Aliso Niguel, he

launched himself into the air to complete the last big play in a game

full of them.

“I was kind of eyeing the sticks,” Craig said of his quarterback

keeper around the right side on third-and-nine with 2:00 remaining. “I

got a couple blocks from (receivers) Jon Vandersloot and Mike McDonald

and I made a dive for it.”

Craig’s dive vaulted him to his own 37-yard line, good enough for 11

yards and a first down. The Sailors then ran out the clock for their

fifth straight win.

Newport’s defense, which came in allowing just 5.6 points per game,

had several more heroes for the Sailors (5-0-1), ranked No. 5 in Orange

County and No. 2 in CIF Southern Section Division VI.

But it was Craig, who scored the Sailors’ first touchdown and threw

for the visitors’ second, whom Brinkley trusted with the game on the

line.

“We called a keeper,” Brinkley said. “Morgan is a winner and he showed

that tonight. He made some plays with his legs, when he wasn’t

necessarily throwing a lot. He found a way to win and that’s the way we

measure the success of our quarterback.”

Nearly all of Harbor’s success came in the first half against the

Wolverines (3-2).

Craig, intercepted for the first time all year on the Sailors’ first

series, capped an eight-play, 80-yard touchdown drive with a 23-yard

sneak after Aliso senior Stephan Berneking’s 30-yard field goal attempt

went wide right.

On the scoring play, Craig lunged forward as the Aliso defensive line

submarined beneath the Newport front blocking wall. Landing on both feet,

Craig then spun out of a tackle and found an open lane to the end zone

with 1:42 left in the first quarter.

Adam Kerns added the first of two conversion kicks for a 7-0 lead.

The margin doubled with 1:00 left in the half, as Craig, rolling right

after a play-action fake to the left, found tight end David Marshall all

alone for a 5-yard scoring toss. The TD capped a 10-play, 72-yard procession, on which Craig scrambled for pickups of 21 and 9 yards.

Craig’s running helped complement junior tailback Dartangan Johnson,

who surpassed the 100-yard mark on the second play of the second quarter

and finished with 204 rushing yards on 33 carries.

Whatever momentum the Tars took into halftime, however, quickly

vanished as Aliso played inspired defense and delved deep into its

offensive playbook to rally back into the contest.

“We let that third quarter momentum get away from us and that’s

something we normally hang our hat on,” Brinkley said.

After a three-and-out on Harbor’s first offensive series, the first

time since the season opener Harbor failed to score a touchdown on its

first third-quarter possession, Aliso’s Scott Brown took a reverse pitch,

pulled up before reaching the left hash mark and threw a strike to Mat

Stewart, who had worked his way behind the secondary.

Stewart made a cutback to elude the Harbor pursuit and the result was

a 63-yard razzle-dazzle scoring play that electrified the home crowd.

Harbor fumbled the ball away two plays after kickoff, setting up Aliso

at the Tars’ 38, but the defense answered quickly.

Five plays later, McDonald made a sliding interception in the end zone

to turn away the threat.

Both defenses stood their ground until a Berneking punt (he averaged

47.8 yards on seven punts, including boomers of 68 and 66 yards) pinned

the Sailors at their own 2.

On the first play, Aliso linebacker Adam Omernik tackled the Harbor

ball carrier in the end zone for a safety to make it 14-9 with 10:49

left.

But a pair of third-down sacks, one by middle linebacker Cory Ray and

another by Marshall, playing end, forced Aliso punts on the Wolverines’

final two possessions to help Harbor earn only its second league-opening

win in the last seven seasons.

Craig finished with 77 rushing yards on 11 attempts.

Jim Rothwell, Matt Casserly, Tyler Miller, Warren Junowich, Matt

Encinias, Kerns, Nick Iverson, Scott Kohan and Bryan Breland also chipped

in defensively for the winners.

“We played great defense the whole night,” Brinkley said. “We knew

we’d come down here and (the Wolverines’) hair would be on fire to play

us tough. This is the kind of game you want to make sure you escape with

a win.”

Aliso managed just 71 yards on the ground and 79 though the air, aside

from the long gadget play.