Barry Faulkner The Newport Harbor High football...

Barry Faulkner

The Newport Harbor High football team has parlayed the short walk

from its locker room to its campus stadium into a pair of lengthy

winning streaks.

The Sailors, who have won eight in a row at home and also their

last eight playoff games at Davidson Field, will put both streaks on

the line Friday a 7 p.m., when they host Valencia in the first round

of the CIF Southern Section Division VI Playoffs.

“It’s a tough game to play at home, but it would be even tougher

on the road,” said Newport Harbor Coach Jeff Brinkley, whose team is

1-3 on the road this season and lost in last year’s Division VI

semifinals at La Mirada.

The last postseason loss at home for the Sailors (7-3) was in the

1997 Division V semifinals against eventual champion Santa Margarita.

Valencia (6-4, including a win later forfeited to Villa Park for

the use of an ineligible player), has some streaks of its own. The

Tigers, runner-up to Orange Lutheran in the Orange League, are making

their seventh straight trip to the playoffs. They have won three

straight first-round games and finished the regular season with three

straight wins, after a 28-21 loss to Orange Lutheran, the No. 2 seed.

Valencia defeated Irvine, 21-16, in Week 5, two weeks before the

Vaqueros knocked off Newport, 28-20.

Coach Mike Marrujo, in his 22nd season at Valencia, was at the

helm when the Tigers eliminated the Sailors, 28-0, in a quarterfinal

game at Newport Harbor in 1991.

Since that setback, which capped a string of four quarterfinal

losses for the Sailors over five seasons, the Tars have won 12 of 13

playoff games in their own stadium.

Playoff success has also become part of the program for the

Sailors, who are 25-10 in the postseason under Brinkley, now in his

17th season at Newport Harbor’s helm. That record includes an 11-1

mark in first-round games, as well as trips to five finals and seven

semis the last 10 years.

“The playoffs are a fresh start for everyone,” Brinkley said. “As

much as we focus on one game at a time during the season, it’s even

more important now, because, if you stumble once, your done.”

Brinkley believes the playoffs can also be about creating

momentum, as much as continuing that built in the regular season.

“Teams can get hot in the playoffs,” Brinkley said. “We were a

good example of that in 1992. We got hot in the playoffs and, all of

a sudden, we were in the finals.”

Valencia has not been to the finals since 1992, when it claimed

its second straight Division VI crown. During the seven-year stretch

from 1986-92, Marrujo’s Tigers played in five section title games,

winning three.

The Sailors hold slight statistical advantages over the Tigers,

most notably in the passing department.

Newport Harbor senior quarterback Michael McDonald has thrown for

1,581 yards and 12 TDs. He has completed 106 of 194 (53%) with only

four interceptions.

Valencia quarterback Steve Lajkowicz, a 6-foot-4, 195-pound

junior, has completed 82 of 162 (51%) for 1,207 yards and 10

touchdowns, with six interceptions.

Newport’s running game is paced by senior tailback Dartangan

Johnson, who has 1,215 yards and 18 TDs this fall on 196 carries.

Johnson is the school career rushing leader with 3,220 yards and

he has eight straight games of at least 100 yards, 17 for his career,

also a Sailors’ school record.

Rylon Thomas, a 5-8, 165-pound sophomore, is Valencia’s leading

rusher with 1,088 yards and six touchdowns on 200 attempts.

Dan Desacola, a 5-9 senior, has a team-high 47 receptions for 704

yards and eight touchdowns for the Tigers, while sophomore Spencer

Link (37 receptions for 595 yards and eight TDs) is the Sailors’

leading pass catcher.

Newport averages 348 yards per game to the Tigers’ 301 and Newport

has outscored Valencia, 272-221, this season. Newport Harbor has

allowed 158 points, while Valencia has yielded just 119.

Friday’s winner will advance to the quarterfinals to meet either

No. 4-seeded Tustin or John Glenn, who play Saturday night at Tustin.