Sailors open playoffs at home

Barry Faulkner

It didn’t take long for fortune to flip for the Newport Harbor

High football program.

Less than 12 hours after sustaining a 45-21 drubbing at the hands

of Sea View League champion Foothill Thursday night, Coach Jeff

Brinkley’s Sailors were uplifted by the flight of a coin that left

them atop a three-way tie for second place. The news got even better

Sunday as the league’s No. 2 entry in the CIF Southern Section

Division VI Playoffs received a first-round home game against

Valencia.

Newport Harbor (7-3) will host the Tigers (6-4) Friday at 7 p.m.

in a contest that figures to be far different from the first-round

waltzes the Sailors have enjoyed the last three seasons.

“It’s going to be a challenge for us,” said Brinkley, whose 1991

Sailors lost in the quarterfinals to Valencia, which is still guided

by the same head coach. Thoroughly respected Mike Marrujo is in his

22nd season with the Placentia-based school. “As coaches, we’re well

aware of the job (Marrujo) has done there and the kind of solid

program he’s had for years.”

Brinkley said the Tigers’ 21-16 nonleague win over an Irvine team

that knocked off the Tars, 28-21, should be enough to convey to his

players just how big a challenge Valencia will present .

The Sailors have been nearly impervious to first-round failure

during Brinkley’s now-17-year tenure, winning 11 of 12 playoff openers, including six straight. Newport’s last first-round exit came

in 1993, a 26-10 road loss to Glendora.

“We have generally played well in the playoffs,” said Brinkley,

who is understating things just a bit. The Tars have won 25 playoff

games and section titles in 1994 and ’99 under Brinkley. They have

made the division final five of the last 11 seasons and advanced to

the semifinals twice more during that span.

The last three first-round wins have come in blowout fashion, as

the Sailors have topped Ocean View (2001), Westminster (2000) and El

Dorado (1999) by a combined margin of 112-7.

But with three regular-season losses, the most since it missed the

playoffs in 1998, Newport enters this postseason with more

uncertainty and less expectations that usual.

“This is going to be a tough game, so I’m really pleased to be

playing at home this week,” Brinkley said Sunday after pairings were

announced at the section office. “You hope you don’t have a game like

(Foothill), but were still in the playoffs and, hopefully, our kids

can make the most of that opportunity.”

Brinkley said the league coin flip, which left Laguna Hills in

third and forced Irvine to bid for the division’s lone at-large

berth, which the Vaqueros earned Sunday, helped ease the pain of

being bested by Foothill.

“It was good that we had something positive happen within a

24-hour period,” Brinkley said of the coin flip.

“You hope you never have a game like (Foothill), but at least

we’re still in a position to be playing in the playoffs. We didn’t

play our best and we needed to play our best to beat (the Knights,

who are the No. 3 seed in Division VI). But give them credit for

playing well.”

If the Sailors play well enough to win Friday, they would hit the

road to face the winner of Saturday’s first-round clash between No.

4-seeded Tustin (5-5) and John Glenn (4-5-1).

Los Altos (8-2), which won a three-way coin flip with fellow

Miramonte League tri-champions Bonita (5-4) and Charter Oak (8-2), is

the No. 1 seed in Division VI.

Empire League champion Orange Lutheran (8-2) is the No. 2 seed.

The Lancers, who defeated Valencia, 28-21, open against Irvine.