TWO-MINUTE DRILL

After Newport Harbor High defeated host Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks, 7-3, in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division football playoffs, Sailors junior cornerback Danny Miller stood on the turf with a cell phone to his ear and a smile on his face.

He was talking to junior linebacker Nick Svendsen who was confined to his bed after undergoing knee surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

Svendsen sustained the injury in an Oct. 12 Sunset League game against Fountain Valley, but didn’t have surgery until the day before the Notre Dame game, Miller said.

“I think he’s on house arrest for a few days,” Miller said. “He’s really lively, especially when he’s here, even when he’s not on the field. I told him he’d be so stoked. It was awesome.”

 After breaking Estancia’s single-season rushing record, junior tailback Carlos Mendez said it was a privilege to end the season with 1,530 yards.

He had 90 yards in the Eagles’ 24-6 loss to Irvine in the CIF Southern Section Southern Division first-round game Friday at Newport Harbor.

Mendez was academically ineligible as a sophomore. But he lifted his grades and was able to surpass the school’s former record-holder, Marshall Hendricks, who in 1999 ran for 1,477 yards on 200 carries in 10 games.

Hendricks went on to play cornerback at San Jose State.

Mendez carried the ball 281 times in 11 games. He also had three games with at least 200 rushing yards, including back-to-back contests during a five-day span in which the Eagles locked up at least a share of the Orange Coast League title.

Mendez’s rushing yards, as well as his 13 rushing touchdowns, are tops among Newport-Mesa ballcarriers this season.

 Although Sage Hill lost to Linfield Christian of Temecula, 62-32, in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Northeast Division playoffs, senior Jamie McGee managed to end his four-year career as varsity quarterback with a bang.

McGee passed for a season-high 453 yards against the Lions, adding to his season totals of 3,113 yards and 36 touchdowns. His four touchdown passes were also one shy of a season best.

The elusive McGee was never sacked in the game, as senior left tackle Cody Gates, senior left guard Joey Puishys, sophomore center Brendan Killaly, freshman right guard T.J. Danner and sophomore right tackle Adam Donchess provided ample protection.

 The three points Newport Harbor allowed to Notre Dame Friday were the fewest it had surrendered since the Sailors’ 16-3 season-opening win over Aliso Niguel on Sept. 6.

Notre Dame (8-3) averaged 31.3 points per game during its 8-1 start, but managed just a field goal in each of its last two games, including a 23-3 loss in the regular-season finale against Crespi.

 The Newport Harbor victory lifted Coach Jeff Brinkley’s record to 14-3 in first-round playoff contests since he took the Sailors helm in 1986.

 Estancia first-year coach Mike Bargas said he’s looking forward to next year, with quarterback Radames Gutierrez gaining experience in his junior year when senior quarterback Mike Morley went down midway through the season with a season-ending injury to his right (throwing) elbow.

Gutierrez finished with 533 passing yards and six touchdowns this season, both team bests. His toughest game was his last, against Irvine.

Bargas pulled Gutierrez after he threw three interceptions in the first half.

Senior receivers Eddie Tomasek and Ryan Redding both lined up at quarterback at times, and even junior receiver Jason Moreno threw a pass.

Gutierrez returned in the second half, however, and settled down. He completed six of nine passes in the last two quarters, including a 19-yard touchdown toss to Tomasek late in the game. It was Tomasek’s sixth receiving touchdown of the season, two short Redding’s team-leading eight touchdowns.

 As if to savor the experience, Costa Mesa High Coach Jeremy Osso went out of his way to congratulate more than his team, following the Mustangs’ 34-0 loss to Pacifica in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Southern Division playoffs Friday at Bolsa Grande High.

He first shook hands with the chain crew, comprised of representatives from Pacifica who had apparently been giving him some good-natured ribbing throughout the game.

He also thanked more than half of the officiating crew with a hand shake and did the same with more than half of the Pacifica coaches and players, whom he wished good luck in the quarterfinals.

 Costa Mesa’s football history is filled with playoff oddities. The Mustangs did not make the postseason their first 16 seasons, then won their first three first-round games in 1976, 1977 and 1979.

They were 3-5 in the postseason before the 1993 team coached by Myron Miller (now at Tustin) won three games to reached the Southern Section final.

Since dropping that title game, 44-6, to Trabuco Hills, the second-biggest margin of defeat in the school’s 21 playoff games, the Mustangs are 1-8 in the playoffs, with the lone win being a first-round triumph over Buena Park in 1997.

 The Lightning had rallied for a 36-35 nonleague win over Linfield Christian on Oct. 19. But the feeling of a blowout playoff loss to Linfield is not unfamiliar to McGee and the rest of the senior class.

It was in 2004 that Sage Hill, making its inaugural football playoff appearance, lost to Linfield Christian, 32-8, in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division XIII playoffs.

 Playing from behind early, the Lightning were forced to go to the air for nearly the whole game Friday night.

Sage Hill ran the ball just four times all night, and by far the most successful was a 26-yard scramble by McGee in the fourth quarter. Fullback Max Torres, the Lightning’s primary ballcarrier, had just two carries for two yards.

When the teams met in October, Torres had 72 yards and two touchdowns, including the touchdown with 41 seconds left to bring the Lightning within a point.

 Top-seeded Long Beach Poly (10-1), which will visit Newport Harbor for Friday’s Pac-5 Division quarterfinal, has been practically infallible since losing, 20-7, to Birmingham Sept. 7.

The Jackrabbits, who have won five of the program’s 13 CIF Southern Section championships since 1997, defeated the Sailors, 34-7, Sept. 14 at Newport Harbor. That was the first meeting between the two schools in football.

On its current nine-game winning streak, Long Beach Poly’s average margin of victory has been 27.3 points. It eliminated Santa Margarita, 39-7, Friday.

— From staff reports