Sailors rule

Barry Faulkner

For at least the first half of the 41st Battle of the Bay football

game Friday night, visiting Corona del Mar High lived up to the

notion it had closed the gap on Back Bay rival teams from Newport

Harbor after some dominant wins by the Sailors in recent editions of

this heated series.

But, as the game wore on, before 6,000 beyond-capacity spectators,

it was the Sailors who wound up narrowing the margin that had

separated this year’s team from recent Newport juggernauts,

dominating the final 24 minutes to earn a 17-0 nonleague victory.

The Tars (2-1), who had produced just 163 rushing yards and one

touchdown in their first two games, and had just 47 yards on the

ground before intermission against the Sea Kings (2-1), amassed 142

rushing yards in the final two quarters, including scoring runs by

senior tailback Dartangan Johnson and senior fullback Rhett

Hartsfield, the first two Harbor running backs to find paydirt this

fall.

Johnson, who had just 81 rushing yards the first two games, romped

for 106 after halftime and finished with 144 yards on 29 carries to

up his career total to 2,230. With at least seven games left, he

needs just 441 to surpass school career rushing leader Steve Brazas.

Meanwhile, Newport’s defense posted its first shutout of the

season and its first against CdM since 1991, limiting the Sea Kings

to just 23 second-half yards of offense, 107 for the game.

“Our goal was to get 150 yards rushing,” Newport Harbor Coach Jeff

Brinkley said. “We started getting (CdM defenders) off the ball in

the second half and we were able to run.”

Brinkley was also quick to credit his defense, which forced seven

punts and held strong after a muffed punt reception put the Sea Kings

in position to seize momentum on the game’s opening series (which

ended in a missed 37-yard field-goal attempt by CdM).

“Our defense played very well, even when we put it in a difficult

position with that turnover,” Brinkley said.

Turnovers, however, wound up favoring the hosts, as CdM lost two

fumbles, the latter setting up Hartsfield’s 2-yard scoring plunge on

the first play of the fourth quarter. Brian Campos, who finished the

Tars’ opening drive of the second half with a 24-yard field goal

midway through the third quarter to break a 0-0 tie, kicked the PAT

to make it 10-0 with 11:58 left in the game.

Senior defensive end Mac Posey collected a fumbled CdM pitch at

the Sea Kings’ 37-yard line before Hartsfield found the end zone six

plays later. A 20-yard reverse by sophomore Spencer Link on

third-and-8 was the key play of the drive.

After holding CdM to a three-and-out, Harbor drove to the CdM 11,

before sophomore Tyler Lance intercepted his own deflection near his

own goal line to keep hope alive for CdM.

But the Sea Kings, whose farthest second-half advance was to their

own 46, failed to get something going, yet again, and Harbor needed

just six plays to march 61 yards for an exclamation touchdown with

2:08 left.

On the final Newport scoring drive, Johnson carried for gains of

19, 14, 7, 7 and 8 to polish off his 10th varsity game of at least

100 rushing yards.

“It has taken us a little while to get the running game going this

year, but we’ve just kept working hard,” Johnson said.

Newport senior middle linebacker Fernando Castorena, who teamed

with outside ‘backers Matt Encinias and Peter Hoyt, cornerbacks Bryce

Sawyer and Ben Soza, safties Warren Junowich and Johnson, as well as

defensive linemen Posey, Shahan Mouradyan, Austin Nieto, Chase

Brawner and Alfredo Cruz to stymie the CdM attack, said it was merely

a matter of executing a strong game plan.

“The coaches worked with us all week and all we had to do was go

out and play,” said Castorena, who had three of the Tars’ nine

tackles at or behind the line of scrimmage.

Mouradyan recovered a fumbled handoff at the CdM 31 late in the

first half, but the Sea Kings’ defense held to preserve a scoreless

standoff.

CdM’s defense, keyed by safety K.C. Rawlins, linebackers Jeff

Reed, Matt Cooper, Kris Cooper and Jason Kidushim, as well as end

John Daley and cornerback Daniel Marin-Finn, helped the Sea Kings

forge a slight statistical advantage before halftime.

CdM senior tailback Mark Cianciulli collected 70 of his 85 rushing

yards before the break, to give the visitors a 95-77 edge in total

offense the first 24 minutes.

“I don’t know what happened to us the second half, but, for

whatever reason, we just didn’t play,” CdM Coach Dick Freeman said.

“I don’t know how many penalties we had, but it seemed like we had

one every time we would have made a first down.”

CdM was penalized 10 times for 45 yards, with nine of those coming

on offense.

Newport quarterback Michael McDonald threw for 94 yards, 60 of

which came on two deep passes to senior Mike Toole.

It was Newport’s fourth straight win over CdM, the eighth in their

last nine meetings, and pushed the Sailors lead in the series to

29-12.