Freiberg highlights win

ALISO VIEJO — Two coaches met on the football field Friday night and each left in opposite directions.

One is three wins shy of No. 200. The other is in charge of a program which hasn’t won in its last 18 games.

Coach Jeff Brinkley was the one walking away with a smile after Newport Harbor High’s season opener.

Once again, Coach Jeff Veeder saw Aliso Niguel falter.

The Sailors routed the Wolverines, 45-7, on a night in which their longtime coach inched closer to a milestone and their kicker surpassed one.

Newport Harbor scored six touchdowns, giving senior kicker Dillan Freiberg the opportunity to claim an Orange County record.

Freiberg converted every PAT, setting a record for consecutive extra-point kicks with 60. Irvine’s Tommy Louie had held the record of 58 straight.

It’s probably a good thing Freiberg got the record before next week because the Sailors are in for a challenge.

Newport Harbor returns home to play host to Loyola of Los Angeles, which went into Friday ranked No. 9 in the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division coaches’ poll.

“This is just preparing us,” Newport Harbor standout Cecil Whiteside said of facing Loyola and running back Anthony Barr, a 6-foot-4, 230-pound senior considered the top back in the state.

“We kind of have a young team, so we kind of had some jitters out there.”

Whiteside, one of the few players with varsity experience, settled Newport Harbor down after a sluggish start at Aliso Niguel (0-2).

The UC Berkeley-bound senior contributed at linebacker and wide receiver. He recovered a fumble early in the third quarter to set up a score. Midway through the quarter, he hauled in a 57-yard pass for a touchdown.

Whiteside hooked up with new starting quarterback Austin Rios four times for 99 yards. Rios looked sharp at times. The senior threw three touchdown passes, finishing with 138 yards on seven-for-10 passing.

“We weren’t happy about the turnover down [near the red zone]. We had a touchdown probably,” Brinkley said of an interception in the second quarter. “I thought he ran the offense well and put us in a position to win the game.”

The game began with more delays than on the 405 Freeway during rush hour. Four times in the first couple of minutes the game was stopped.

Officials failed to figure out what was going on and Aliso Niguel lined up incorrectly, pushing the offense back twice before snapping the ball.

The confusion continued. Both teams committed more penalties and turned the ball over once in the first quarter.

In the final minute of the opening quarter, things settled down.

Newport Harbor jumped to a 10-0 lead. Freiberg converted a 25-yard field goal with 33 seconds left. A 34-yard pass from Rios to Whiteside on the sideline put the Sailors near the red zone.

With single coverage, Whiteside out-jumped the smaller cornerback. Rios went to his 6-foot-3, 222-pound receiver again.

Rios misfired on a slant to Whiteside over the middle on a third-and-seven situation, forcing Newport Harbor to settle for a field goal. The offense got another chance to score a touchdown 15 seconds later.

An interception by lineman Zack Moghaddam off a tipped ball gave Newport Harbor great field position. On the first play, Rios hit Ryan Andrews on a play-action pass. Rios rolled to his right and completed his first touchdown pass, an 18-yarder with nine seconds to go in the first.

Rios would find his fullback again. This time in the second quarter after Aliso Niguel’s punter mishandled a snap, burying the Wolverines’ defense on their 15-yard line.

A couple of minutes earlier, Jacob Wilson bobbled a snap on a punt. Somehow he recovered the ball, broke a couple of tackles and raced toward Aliso Niguel’s sideline for a first down.

Wilson needed one yard. He gained three, and with 6:35 in the second Aliso Niguel recorded a first down for the first time.

Wilson wasn’t so fortunate on the second snafu on the snap to the punter. The distance for a first down was much more, 19 yards. Wilson dropped the ball again, and ran right before losing his footing and getting tackled by the Sailors.

Two yards is how many Newport Harbor allowed Wilson.

The Sailors took advantage of another mistake by the Wolverines. They went to the same play that worked earlier for a score.

Play action was called and Rios again rolled to his right, hitting Andrews for a 15-yard touchdown, giving the Sailors a 17-0 lead with 4:05 left before halftime.

Freiberg converted his second of six extra points. Brinkley knew his kicker was on his way to making history.

“That was great for him,” Brinkley said. “You have to give a lot of credit to [Ryan] Iverson, who’s been his long-snapper through this thing.”

Brinkley is next. Three more wins and he has 200 at Newport Harbor.

Newport Harbor 45, Aliso Niguel 7

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Newport Harbor 10-7-21-7--45

Aliso Niguel 0-0-0-7--7

FIRST QUARTER

NH — Freiberg 25 FG, :33.

NH — Andrews 18 pass from Rios (Freiberg kick), 0:09.

SECOND QUARTER

NH — Andrews 15 pass from Rios (Freiberg kick), 4:05.

THIRD QUARTER

NH — Whitaker 42 run (Freiberg kick), 11:17.

NH — Gomez 1 run (Freiberg kick), 6:44.

NH — Whiteside 57 pass from Rios (Freiberg kick), 5:14.

FOURTH QUARTER

NH — Whitaker 72 fumble return (Freiberg kick), 8:17.

AN — Long 13 run (Perez kick), 1:39.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

NH — Whitaker, 4-59, 1 TD; Diller, 8-39; Andrews, 4-33; Swies, 4-16; Gomez, 3-4, 1 TD; Rios, 3-minus 6; Blower, 1-minus 8.

AN — Long, 15-33, 1 TD; Carroll, 10-32; Hwang, 3-13; Wilson, 2-4; Robinson, 2-2; Galosic, 5-minus 12.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

NH — Rios, 7-10-1, 138, 3 TDs.

AN — Galosic, 8-23-1, 65; Ossola, 1-1-0, 49.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

NH — Whiteside, 4-99, 1 TD; Andrews, 2-33; 2 TDs; Gomez, 1-6.

AN — Romano, 5-87; Abdulla, 2-19; Robinson, 2-8.