TWO-MINUTE DRILL

Back at Cerritos Community College in the early 1970s, Esperanza High football coach Bill Pendleton played tight end with Newport Harbor Coach Jeff Brinkley at quarterback.

“He was the Joe Namath of Norwalk,” said Pendleton, after Brinkley’s Sailors lost to Esperanza, 28-7, Friday, unable to able to pull off a second straight Sunset League upset against the ranked Aztecs.

Newport Harbor (5-2, 1-1 in league) just couldn’t move the ball against Esperanza (7-0, 2-0), ranked No. 9 in the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division.

 Sage Hill School’s senior class is quite familiar with the drive to Temecula that the Lightning made before their 36-35 football victory at Linfield Christian Friday night.

In 2004, the current senior class, then freshmen, had a CIF Southern Section Division XIII playoff game at Linfield Christian. In what was Sage Hill’s first postseason football appearance, the Lightning lost that first-round game, 32-8.

The starter at quarterback was familiar. Senior quarterback Jamie McGee, now a four-year starter at the position, threw for 143 yards and a touchdown in the 2004 meeting.

On Friday night, three years later, McGee had 245 passing yards and three touchdowns to help the Lightning to their one-point nonleague victory.

“That team [three years ago] just completely overpowered us,” McGee said. “It feels so good to come back here, drive three hours and get a win. It’s huge.”

 The Newport Harbor defense kept the Tars within 14-7 at halftime, with the Newport touchdown coming on middle linebacker Cecil Whiteside’s 55-yard fumble return. Also safety Henry Pyle stopped an Esperanza drive by intercepting a halfback pass.

In the first half, the offense managed to get one first down and had minus-18 yards on nine carries. Tailback Ben Frazier, a big reason why the Sailors last year shocked Esperanza, 21-13, finished with zero yards on 12 carries. Last year as a junior, he rushed for 119 and one touchdown.

“I ran my hardest,” Frazier said, after the Aztecs limited Newport Harbor to 14 rushing yards and 73 passing yards. “It seemed like the holes weren’t opening. Credit their defense. We got Los [Alamitos next], which is our homecoming. Our offense just needs to step it up.”

 If it wasn’t for Whiteside’s fumble return, Newport Harbor would’ve been shut out for the first time since 2003, when it lost, 28-0, in the opening round of the Southern Section Division IV playoffs to Los Altos.

Since returning on Oct. 12 from a biceps injury, Whiteside has recovered three fumbles, two of which have produced touchdowns. The other score came in the Sailors’ 27-7 league-opening win against Fountain Valley when Whiteside recovered a fumble in the end zone.

 It doesn’t get any easier for Newport Harbor. Next is Los Alamitos (6-1, 2-0), ranked No. 6 in the Pac-5 Division. At least this league game is at Davidson Field.

Newport Harbor played the Griffins tough last year in a first-place showdown, falling, 9-7, on a 36-yard field goal midway through the fourth quarter.

 In two league games, Newport Harbor junior quarterback Andrew McDonald has seen the defense play well as it has come up with nine turnovers.

Now he’s looking for the offense to turn it up.

“Hopefully [we can] come out with a little more tempo,” said McDonald, who hasn’t thrown a touchdown pass or more than 80 yards in either of the two league games this year. “Our defense did a pretty good job. We tried to get the ball to our playmakers, obviously it didn’t work [against Esperanza].”

 A key play late in Sage Hill’s victory was made by senior inside linebacker Joey Puishys. With 11 seconds left in the game and Sage Hill up one, Puishys tackled the Linfield Christian running back for a two-yard loss at the Sage Hill 39.

That made a 54-yard field goal attempt for the Lions to 56 yards instead, and Sage Hill survived when the kick was short.

“That last stop on the draw was huge,” McGee said. “Maybe if they would have got five yards on that play, that [field-goal try] would have gone in.”

 The looks on the faces of the Corona del Mar players said it all after a 20-0 Pacific Coast League loss to Laguna Hills Friday night.

Sea Kings players appeared stunned, frustrated and disappointed.

“Homecoming’s just an excuse for this school,” said quarterback Hunter Alder. “Just like, it makes it more special with more people here. It’s not about homecoming. It’s about a league game and having to go out and play well and we just didn’t play well tonight. Homecoming makes it more special, more people here, but it doesn’t add anything to the game for us.”

 The Sea Kings struggled, offensively, against Laguna Hills, ranked No. 5 in the CIF Southern Section Southern Division, producing just 97 rushing yards and 52 more through the air.

But, help could be on the way in the form of senior Erik Rask. Rask, who rushed for 381 yards and four touchdowns last season, before suffering a season-ending knee injury against Laguna Hills, carried twice for 33 yards Friday against the Hawks.

After tearing his ACL last season, CdM Coach Dick Freeman made the decision to limit Rask to inside linebacker, where he led the team with 109 tackles as a junior. But he has become more of a factor on offense as the season has progressed.

Rask had his first carry of the season (for three yards) in the league-opening win over Beckman on Oct. 11.

“I don’t think he’ll go full time on the offense, but he’ll play as much as we can get him in,” Freeman said. “He will definitely block because he can control what goes on a little more. We’re just not trying to get him in a situation where his knee gets re-injured.”

 The Lightning were able to win at Linfield Christian despite a huge night from Lions junior running back Daniel Musquiz. The hard-to-tackle Musquiz ran for 200 yards on 28 carries, including runs of 33 yards and 32 yards.

“That kid was just quality,” Sage Hill Coach Pete Anderson. “He was slimy. He put on a clinic on how to play tailback.”

Numerous times, McGee, a safety on defense, had to make the tackle on Musquiz after he had burst through the line.

“He ran hard, but we really have to get back to form tackling,” McGee said. “We missed so many tackles.”

— From staff reports