Harbor shows good signs

TUSTIN — Newport Harbor High’s football team celebrates the opening of its season today at the school’s gymnasium, but the squad had their own kickoff to the year on the field with a scrimmage against Foothill on Friday night at Tustin High.

Harbor Coach Jeff Brinkley and his staff caught a glimpse of where their team is before the beginning of what could be a pivotal season for the Sailors.

Things could have panned out smoother for the Tars, who faced off against their former Sea View League rival.

“I think we did OK,” Brinkley said. “It’s a good learning experience for us. We have a lot of young guys coming out for the first time.”

And for their first time, the team didn’t look half bad.

“Like I told them ... we get better ... we get worse,” Brinkley said. “Nobody’s going to stay the same, so hopefully we get better.”

The scrimmage featured a controlled format, in which both teams practiced offense, defense and special teams.

For the first half of the scrimmage, Newport Harbor ran the ball frequently, but failed to score any touchdowns. They practiced throwing as well, with junior quarterback Andrew McDonald — who is the son of former USC All-American Paul McDonald and brother of Michael, a former Harbor quarterback and current senior Trojan back-up quarterback — playing the first offensive series.

Foothill cracked Newport’s defense with two touchdowns, one with an impressive 30-yard run, about two thirds of the way through the scrimmage.

Foothill’s offense caught Newport off guard at times.

“I thought we threw the ball adequately and we ran the ball at times pretty well,” Brinkley said. “Defensively they ran a couple things at us we really hadn’t prepared for. When you play someone, you usually have more time to get ready. We only had a day to get ready.”

Newport awakened offensively towards the end of the scrimmage. On the first play of the drive, McDonald tossed the ball to junior running back Michael Helfrich for an eight-yard gain. Next, McDonald handed the ball off to Helfrich again, who scored on an eight-yard sprint into the end zone

“We started off a little slow, but started to pick it up in the end,” McDonald said. “We ran two plays to score the touchdown and our run started to pick it up.”

With the next offensive series, McDonald decided to work quickly. He launched a 15-yard pass to sophomore wide receiver Cecil Whiteside, who scored.

Whiteside is one of many players anxious to start this season and improve on last year’s 6-4, 3-2 Sunset League finish.

“Coach called the play and it was man coverage and the perfect route for the perfect coverage,” Whiteside said. “Next week is going to be good. We have to shape up and go back to square one, watch film, and practice hard.”

McDonald, who figures to be the starting quarterback, went nine for 10 passing for 63 yards and one TD.

He looks forward to the upcoming season and plans to use the advice of his siblings to succeed. It doesn’t hurt that his offensive line is strong either.

“My dad just says ‘don’t think about it out there, don’t critique yourself too hard,’ ” McDonald said. “I just learn from all the mistakes I make. We have a big [offensive] line and we have great receivers ... it’s good for me it takes a lot of pressure off me because we have guys to catch the ball.

Junior Hayden Green, who transferred from Mater Dei, and senior Justin Jones split time as back-up quarterbacks. Both kept themselves ready, as they tried to advance the ball up the field with passing.

On the ground, Helfrich rushed for 75 yards on 11 caries.

Junior running back Danny Miller rushed for 40 yards on six carries.

Junior Brandon Kula bloodied his hand while playing fullback, but remained in the game. When asked which performance for the defense stood out, Brinkley singled out one player.

“I thought Ned Lyon in our second group played really well at linebacker,” Brinkley said. “He played as good as I’ve seen him play so that was a nice surprise.”

Sophomore kicker Dillan Freiberg consistently kicked the ball deep for the Sailors.

“He’s a good little kicker,” Brinkley said. “He’s got a big upside because he’s such a young guy and he’s just going to keep getting better every year. He kicked the ball deep with great hang-time.”

Junior defensive back Henry Pyle, senior wide receiver and defensive back Adam Venegas and senior tight end and defensive end Dustin Campbell all had productive days on the gridiron for the Sailors.

One familiar face didn’t gear up because of an injury. Senior running back Ben Frazier, who rushed for 695 yards on 148 attempts for six touchdowns last year, sat out during the scrimmage, but Brinkley expects him to be ready for Thursday’s season opener against visiting Aliso Niguel.