Lutheran rout may prompt promotion

Barry Faulkner

To most of the 8,204 who witnessed the CIF Southern Section Division

VI championship football game Saturday at Angel Stadium, it appeared

victorious Orange Lutheran High was playing on a completely different

level than previously unbeaten Newport Harbor.

And, if recent section history is any guideline, that may soon be

the case.

The top-seeded Lancers (13-1), a private school competing in the

Empire League, earned their first section crown by virtue of a 35-6

dismantling of the No. 2-seeded Sailors (12-1-1).

But Coach Jim Kunau’s juggernaut has played for a CIF title four

of the last five seasons, including two straight Division VI finals.

Since the 2000 season, when the then-Olympic League entry made the

first of two straight trips to the Division XI championship game,

Orange Lutheran is 56-8-2, a winning percentage of .864.

Such success is likely to generate change when schools are first

placed into leagues -- a process that will begin early in 2005 --

then grouped into playoff divisions for competition beginning in the

fall of 2006.

The last time the Sailors were thumped so convincingly in a CIF

title game -- a 38-0 Division V loss to Santa Margarita in 1996 --

Santa Margarita, another parochial power that also won the Division V

crown in 1997 and lost in the Division VI title game in 1998, was

subsequently placed in the Division I Serra League at the earliest

opportunity.

“They’re a very good football team,” Newport Harbor Coach Jeff

Brinkley said of the Lancers, who needed just four possessions and 28

plays to build a 28-0 lead with 3:55 left in the first half.

“They’re very athletic and they do a very good job of coaching

them up,” Brinkley continued. “They’ve got a lot of weapons. Maybe in

the next releaguing, they might go the route of Santa Margarita.”

Newport, which had not allowed four touchdowns in any game all

season, let alone in one half, finally forced a punt that rolled dead

on the Sailors’ 14-yard line with 15 ticks remaining in the half.

The Sailors, who managed just 37 yards of offense in the first

half, including just 12 from their vaunted running game, elected to

take a knee and retreat to the locker room, rather than risk any

further damage.

The kneel-down play, run typically to cement a triumph by using

the final seconds of the fourth quarter, is referred to by Brinkley

as “victory formation.”

But never was that terminology so askew, as were the early

fortunes of the Sailors.

Except for an encouraging opening sequence that included three

completed passes by senior quarterback Kasey Peters and a 16-yard

rumble by 225-pound senior tailback Trevor Theriot, the Sailors gave

their supporters more opportunities to cringe than cheer.

Included in the first-half struggles were four straight low long

snaps that turned 5-foot-9 junior punter Travis Duffield into a

crouching infielder. Duffield managed to collect all four snaps and

get his punts away, but three of his heroic hurries left Orange

Lutheran with just 42, 40 and 43 yards to paydirt. The Lancers

negotiated all three in a combined 20 plays.

“It came down to the fact that our guys executed extremely well,”

said Kunau, who nodded approvingly at the suggestion that this was

his team’s best performance of the year.

“I’m extremely proud of our defense,” said Kunau, whose team,

after a 21-7 season-opening loss to perennial Division I power Mater

Dei, outscored its final 13 foes by an average of 23.5 points. Orange

Lutheran’s smallest margin of victory this season was a 24-7 verdict

against Valencia, which was 9-0 at the time. “We basically contained

their running game.”

Newport Harbor came in averaging nearly 204 rushing yards its

first 13 games, but finished with only 12 yards on 13 attempts,

including three sacks. In addition to the aforementioned Theriot run,

which produced Harbor’s lone rushing first down, the Tars had just

one running play gain as many as 5 yards.

And when Peters wasn’t being sacked, he was obviously affected by

consistent pressure in the pocket.

Brinkley also praised the Lancers’ defense.

“They didn’t do anything we didn’t expect,” Brinkley said of the

four-three scheme. “But they played more physical and they moved

faster up front. They just out-physicaled us.”

Testament to that fact was the loss of three Sailor standouts to

shoulder injuries.

Senior Spencer Link, who started at receiver and cornerback,

missed the second half after getting hurt during a tackle late in the

second quarter. Link was the Newport-Mesa Player of the Year as a

junior and finishes atop the school’s career receptions list with

150.

Thomas Martin, a senior middle linebacker, and Greg Miner, a

senior tight end and outside linebacker, both missed most of the

second half with shoulder injuries.

Newport’s biggest highlight came on its initial second-half

possession, created when Martin and outside linebacker Taylor Young

combined to jar a fumble loose from Lancer quarterback Aaron Corp.

Junior safety Tom Jackson recovered at his own 35 and the Sailors’

offense went to work.

After a 23-yard Peters pass to Miner, and a 1-yard run, Peters

lofted a strike to senior Alex Orth, running free on a post, for a

41-yard TD.

It was Orth’s sixth TD reception of the playoffs.

But the Lancers answered with a 13-play, 70-yard TD drive that

finalized the scoring.