Newport Harbor still plugging holes

Rick Devereux

The injuries Coach Jeff Brinkley has had to overcome on the Newport

Harbor High football team would send some staffs looking for excuses.

The best wide receiver is out with a shoulder injury.

The projected starting tailback is out with ligament damage to his

knee.

The leading tackler on defense is sidelined with a stomach

ailment.

But Brinkley and the Sailors plug in another athlete and continue

to win.

Newport (2-0) beat Fountain Valley, 20-7, in the season opener and

Marina, 35-0, Friday, with various players stepping up to contribute.

Receiver Alex Orth grabbed a game-high eight catches for 85 yards and

a touchdown against the Barons. Junior James Coder hauled in six

passes for 88 yards and three scores against the Vikings and senior

fullback Trevor Theriot rushed for a career-high 153 yards and one

touchdown Friday.

“We have a system that we run that has reads for the quarterback

and he reads and throws to the guy who is open,” Brinkley said. “Last

week it was Alex, this week was James. We didn’t go in saying we

wanted to get James the ball.”

Brinkley said the team did not emphasize Theriot picking up more

carries, either, even though the 6-foot-1, 225-pounder lined up as a

tailback behind a blocking back.

“We try to take what [the defense] gives us,” Brinkley said. “I’ve

always believed that you’ve got to be able to run the ball in order

to win and you’ve got to be able to stop the run. But if a team gives

us a ratio that dictates pass, we’ll pass. It depends on what they

choose to stop.”

It appeared the Vikings wanted to stop the run because Marina was

stacking defenders close to the line of scrimmage. But senior

quarterback Kasey Peters made them pay for giving receivers room to

work, completing 11 of 18 attempts for 139 yards and three

touchdowns.

“I thought [Peters] played real well [against Marina],” Brinkley

said. “He had two bad luck interceptions in the first week, but,

overall, he has been playing really well. And the offensive line has

done a great job of protecting him.”

The Sailors, No. 2 in CIF Southern Section Division VI, will

attempt to keep things rolling when they meet crosstown rival Corona

del Mar in the Battle of the Bay, Thursday at Newport Harbor.

* CORONA DEL MAR: It looks as if the three-headed monster has been

cut in half when it comes to the Sea Kings ground game.

Last season, Wess Presson, Austin Brawner and Brett Crowley

combined for 1,343 rushing yards. The production was evenly

distributed between the three with Brawner (554 yards) holding a

slight edge over Presson (407) and Crowley (382).

This year, Presson has emerged as the main ballcarrier, rushing

for 525 yards and six touchdowns on 48 carries. The second-leading

rusher for the Sea Kings is quarterback Tom Welch, who has 240 yards

and four touchdowns on 29 carries.

Through the first three games last season, Austin Brawner was the

leading rusher with 232 yards and two TDs on 46 attempts. This

season, Brawner, used primarily as a blocking back, has 123 yards on

19 carries.

But offensive coordinator Tony Naranjo is obviously doing

something right since Corona del Mar (3-0) has outscored its

opponents by an average of 39-17. In Friday’s 44-28 victory over

Troy, the offense produced six gains of at least 20 yards, including

touchdowns of 57, 50 (rushing) and 27 (passing).

Presson had 107 rushing yards in the first quarter alone.

But the most critical points were the two touchdowns CdM scored in

the final 3:29 that sealed the victory.

Coach Dick Freeman, obviously impressed by his team’s

fourth-quarter stamina, said afterward his players should never again

complain about running sprints in practice.

The Sea Kings entered Friday’s win ranked No. 6 in CIF Division

IX.

* ESTANCIA: Coach Craig Fertig was surprised to learn the Eagles’

19-0 victory over Buena Park was the first shutout by an Eagles

defense since 2000, a span of 38 games.

“Oh?,” he said. “Well, I give all the credit to our defensive

coordinator, Dave Olsen. He does a great job at getting the kids to

believe in the game plan.”

Fertig said Olsen’s teaching background helps the defensive coach.

“He’s a history teacher and has really studied military history a

lot,” Fertig said. “In military history, you go in and study the

tendencies of what armies do on the battlefield. Dave studies what

the offense will do and its tendencies.”

Fertig said anticipating what Buena Park would run was a major

factor in the win.

“Olsen is a great strategy guy,” he said. “We would know what they

would do at certain times and then stunt or role our coverage to

defend it and it worked to perfection.”

But while a general can direct troop movements, it’s the actual

soldiers who decide the outcome of any battle.

“I liked our intensity on defense,” Fertig said. “When it came to

a crucial time, our players would come up and make plays. One of the

biggest improvements we’ve had is that we tackled better.”

Fertig said the play of linebacker Ryan Sanford, cornerback

Ezequiel Villalvazo and safety Ricky Montgomery have been impressive.

Sanford and Montgomery ended the game with a safety, simultaneously

taking down the quarterback in the end zone.

That was the third different quarterback to be hit by the Eagle

defense, with the first two getting knocked out of the game with

injuries. Tackle Nelson Leon blindsided the quarterback, who fell on

his throwing shoulder, and Montgomery had a similar play later in the

game.

“I’m an old quarterback, so I feel for those guys,” Fertig said.

“I went up to [their starting quarterback after the game], and he was

shaking hands with his left, but he told me he’d be OK.”

Fertig said he hopes the team will continue its stellar play and

cut back on unforced penalties.

“We keep shooting ourselves in the foot with stupid penalties,” he

said. “It’s over-exuberance. We want them to be aggressive, but we

got called for illegal procedure twice. That needs to change.”

Estancia (2-1) has a bye this week. The Eagles open up Golden West

League play against defending champion Orange Oct. 1 at Newport

Harbor.

* COSTA MESA: After allowing more than 325 rushing yards against

Huntington Beach High, Mustangs Coach Tom Baldwin knows exactly what

needs to be fixed.

“It’s the same problem we’ve had in the other two games: We give

up big plays,” he said. “[Huntington Beach] didn’t overpower us.

They’d make zero yards on three plays and then they’d gain 80 yards

on one play.”

The Mustangs (0-3) attacking defense makes them vulnerable to such

big plays. When a ballcarrier gets past the first wave of tacklers,

there can be a lot of room to run.

The Oilers’ quarterback ran for negative yards on three of his

seven carries, but still finished with 74 yards, mainly because of a

59-yard touchdown run.

“We actually did a pretty good job of stuffing him,” Baldwin said.

“We either tackle them for a loss or give up big plays”

The defense wasn’t the only group to allow big plays. The Oilers

blocked one punt and returned another 70 yards for a score.

“If you take those two plays away, we probably have a good chance

of winning the game,” Baldwin said. “We are our own worst enemy.

We’ve beaten ourselves. We’ve got to eliminate our mistakes and

eliminate those big plays.”

The Costa Mesa offense started to shine, especially junior

quarterback Ryan French, who threw for 201 yards in the 42-28

Huntington Beach loss.

“I think French is progressing very, very well,” Baldwin said. “He

scrambles when he should and he’s making the right reads, considering

he has only started three games.”

French’s job is made easier with tight end Jeff Waldron as a

target. Waldron’s seven catches for 155 yards and two touchdowns

against the Oilers are career highs.

“Jeff has been outstanding,” Baldwin said. “He catches the ball

even when he’s highly covered. There were a couple of times that I

thought the ball was going to be intercepted, but Jeff went up and

stole the ball away from them.”

Baldwin isn’t concerned about the offense, though.

“The defense is where the problems are,” he said. “We’ve just been

giving up big plays. And it’s not always the same guys making the

mistakes, so we’re going to have to do something to change that.”

* SAGE HILL: All coaches want the team to grow from one week to

the next, but Lightning Coach Tom Monarch wasn’t impressed with his

squad after its 21-7 loss to Villanova Prep Friday.

“We played a much better team than the week before [Midway

Baptist],” Monarch said. “I didn’t see the improvement I wanted to

see from Game 1. We didn’t take advantage of opportunities. Nobody

really stood out for us against Villanova. It was just one of those

games.”

Monarch said the Lightning linebackers had trouble recognizing

counters and misdirection, which led to tacklers being out of

position.

He wanted to force the Wildcats to throw, but the defense allowed

357 rushing yards.

On the positive side, the two passes Villanova Prep attempted were

both intercepted.

“It was a good hitting game,” Monarch said. “We had some arm

tackling, but we were a little bit out of position.”

The Sage Hill offense was limited by injuries to freshman

quarterback Jamie McGee. McGee had a sore throwing shoulder, and his

mobility was reduced due to a sprained ankle.

“McGee is dinged up a bit, but nothing serious,” Monarch said.

“His sore shoulder hindered him from throwing long passes. And he

tweaked his ankle. So when your quarterback has trouble rolling out,

it limits you quite a bit. It’s like going into a gun fight with a

knife. It just doesn’t work.”

The two main weapons Monarch has on offense are running back Don

Ayres and wide receiver/running back Keya Manshadi. The only problem

is, if the passing game is ineffective, defenses can concentrate on

stopping the running game. The Wildcats limited Ayres and Manshadi to

a combined 131 rushing yards and one touchdown, one week after they

combined for 277 rushing yards and four scores.

“Those are our two strengths, Manshadi and Ayres,” Monarch said.

“Keya, day-in and day-out, is a workhorse. And Ayres is a workhorse,

too.”

Sage Hill plays host to Twin Pines Friday.