Irvine exploits cracks

Barry Faulkner

The stars aligned for Irvine High’s Terrell Vinson in the

Vaqueros’ 28-20 Sea View League victory Thursday, as the senior

running back amassed 309 yards on 28 carries, including touchdown

runs of 94 and 65 yards.

But Vinson’s unprecedented success against a Newport Harbor

defense, at least during the 17-year tenure of Coach Jeff Brinkley,

had something to do with the Sailor defenders’ inability to maintain

proper alignment.

“It was a combination of everything,” Brinkley said of Vinson’s

heroics, which also included a 32-yard touchdown reception and 362

all-purpose yards. “We got ourselves out of position more than we’d

like to and he’s a good back. We’re a gap defense and any time we’re

not in the right gaps, something bad is going to happen.”

Newport Harbor’s defense, perennially strong against the run, had

surrendered just 590 rushing yards the first six games this fall.

With Vinson on the loose, however, Irvine piled up 359 rushing yards,

allowing them to overcome a strong offensive performance by the

Sailors.

“Offensively, we played very well,” Brinkley said. “Dartangan

Johnson (175 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries) played very

well. We couldn’t have asked more from him with the way he ran the

football. It was unfortunate we got ourselves in a chase position in

the second half, so we had to try to score a little more quickly than

we’re used to. We couldn’t run (Johnson) as much in the second half

(eight carries for 23 yards).

“(Senior quarterback Michael) McDonald threw the ball well, too

(15 of 26 for 196 yards, just 5 fewer than his career single-game

best, with one TD and no interceptions).”

The Sailors’ three first-half drives consumed 16 plays (leading to

a missed 22-yard field goal), seven plays and 11 plays, the latter

two resulting in touchdown marches of 65 and 78 yards.

Vinson had also yet to explode before intermission, with only 43

yards on nine carries, including only one of more than 8 yards, a

13-yard pickup.

But Vinson, who had 92 rushing yards on 20 carries as a junior

against Newport, wasted little time getting things rolling in the

third quarter. He burst 65 yards to the end zone on the third play

after halftime, then, following Harbor’s only three-and-out, went 94

yards for a TD on the third play of Irvine’s second possession.

Vinson added runs of 28 and 29 yards to help Irvine (5-2, 2-0 in

league) pull off the upset and force the Sailors (5-2, 1-1) into

catch-up mode if they want to defend their league crown.

To get an idea of how prolific Vinson’s effort was, consider it

had been 71 games since any team posted 300 rushing yards against

Newport Harbor.

Santa Margarita’s Billy Newman went for 252 yards on 20 carries in

a 35-0 defeat of Harbor in the 1996 CIF Southern Section Division VI

title game, after piling up 264 rushing yards on 28 carries in the

regular-season meeting with the Tars that same year.

Since then, the same span of 71 games, only one runner, Cerritos

quarterback Tim Austin (201 yards in last year’s CIF Division VI

quarterfinal loss to Newport) had surpassed the 200-yard plateau on

the ground.

This season, only Trabuco Hills, a 16-8 winner in the season

opener, had posted at least 300 yards total offense (312) and the

five opponents between Trabuco and Irvine totaled only 410 combined

rushing yards.

One would need to look back to the 1997 season to find a team with

at least 300 passing yards against Harbor. Santa Margarita’s Carson

Palmer, currently shredding Pac-10 secondaries for USC, threw for 354

yards in a regular-season win over the Tars, then helped (with 279

yards) Santa Margarita throw for 319 yards in a CIF Division VI

semifinal victory later the same season.

“We’ve never had one guy go out there and control the offense like

that against us,” Brinkley said of Vinson. “Any time we’ve come up

against a team that is one-dimensional, we’ve always done a good job

(defensively).”