Sailors in the Sunset?

Rick Devereux

It almost seems as if the Newport Harbor High football team is

switching divisions and leagues.

Last week the Sailors (1-0) defeated CIF Southern Section Division

I opponent and Sunset League contender Fountain Valley, 20-7, Friday.

The Tars face Marina (0-1), which also plays in the Sunset League, at

7 p.m. Friday.

Newport Harbor, ranked No. 2 in CIF Division VI, will rely on the

defense to keep the Vikings out of the end zone. Capistrano Valley

held Marina to 87 yards of total offense in last week’s contest and

kept the offense from scoring. Marina’s only score was on a 101-yard

interception in the first quarter.

The Sailors beat Marina, 10-6, last year and have won the last

three meetings between the schools by an average of two touchdowns,

but studying old film may not be helpful for Coach Jeff Brinkley.

“Last year they had a quarterback that was in shotgun and ran

around a lot,” Brinkley said. “They’re not as spread as they were

last year. They’re running more two-back sets. They’re much more

conventional.”

The Sailors will be without the services of All-Sea View League

linebacker Thomas Martin, who has a stomach illness, and second-team

all-league running back/defensive back Ryan Rippon, who has a knee

injury.

Brinkley is counting on Trevor Theriot to continue his dominating

play, switching from his normal outside linebacker position to middle

to fill Martin’s void. Junior Billy Brown manned the outside spot

last week.

Theriot will also carry the ball on offense in Rippon’s absence.

The fullback is known as a bruising blocker, but was the game’s

leading rusher last week with 20 carries for 75 yards. The senior

also grabbed three passes for 25 yards.

“We know [Marina] runs a 3-4 defense, and there are lot of

different ways they play it,” Brinkley said. “If they pack it in

[close to the line of scrimmage to stop the run], we’ll throw it. But

we’ve seen them change their coverage in games to try to confuse the

offense, so we want to be balanced.”

Brinkley said that ball control will be a key for the Sailors to

prevail. He expects the Vikings to play better than they did against

Capistrano Valley, but he also expects a better Newport team to take

the field.

“The key is for us to improve. We want the entire group to get

better,” he said. “Lou Holtz said that you either get better or you

get worse, and we want to continue to get better.”