Daily Pilot High School Football Player of the Week

One second remained on the clock before halftime, not much time for Austin Rios to scan the football field for Newport Harbor High.

On the opponent’s 10-yard line, he spotted someone in the corner of his right eye. The junior quarterback knew very well the player to throw the ball to for a touchdown.

The decision seemed like an easy one for a first-year starter. Many made it for Rios before he tried last week against rival Corona del Mar.

The best player in the Battle of the Bay game was UC Berkeley-bound senior Cecil Whiteside. At 6-foot-3, 222 pounds, the target was impossible to miss.

“The crowd knew we were going to Cecil,” said Rios, who played in front of about 8,000 fans at Orange Coast College. “The coaches knew we were going to Cecil. The defense knew we were going to Cecil.”

Rios went the other way.

The play didn’t go as scripted, but Rios’ heady decision paid off. With the defense consumed to the left side, where Whiteside lined up, Rios remembered the receiver he saw in the periphery.

Rios hit the right receiver, the one to his right. An uncovered one has a better chance of scoring than one with multiple defenders in his area.

Seconds after the Sea Kings failed to kill the clock in their own end, Rios killed them for turning the ball over on downs. Rios found Parker Norton for the first of his three touchdown passes as Newport Harbor went on to win, 37-7.

Rios so far is making the correct decisions and the Sailors (3-0) are off to their best start since 2005. That same year, Newport Harbor won their last CIF Southern Section championship.

Whether the Sailors return to the top again depends a lot on Rios. Can he continue to keep defenses from stacking the box against running back Cedric Whitaker?

On a young team, Rios is showing he can. He is one of the leaders on a Newport Harbor team ranked No. 10 in the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division poll.

The quarterback has to take charge.

“The kids have a lot of confidence in him,” Newport Harbor Coach Jeff Brinkley said. “I like the way he has led our football team.

“He’s a guy who’s a student of the game. He’s smart and he wants to be really good.”

Rios has quickly learned under Brinkley what he likes and dislikes. The 6-foot-3, 175-pounder is making his coach happy.

Rios wants to bring Brinkley more joy tonight in a nonleague game at Dana Hills at 7. Brinkley is one victory away from No. 200 in his 24-year career with the Sailors.

“He just wants to go out there and win football games,” Rios said of Brinkley. “That’s [what] he communicates to us, ‘Just get it done on the field and get it done right.’”

Rios is doing his part, earning the admiration of his offensive line. Whenever he can, Rios thanks left tackle Jake Taylor, left guard Brandon Coffey, center Connor Miki, right guard Jake Palanjian and right tackle Dillon Gillette for protecting him.

Rios has thrown six touchdowns and two interceptions. Brinkley is pleased with the touchdown-to-interception ratio.

He made one mistake in Newport Harbor’s big game against previously ranked Loyola of Los Angeles on Sept. 17. On his 17th birthday, at least Rios came away with a 28-14 win at home in front of his No. 1 fan, his grandmother, Aurora Rios.

As for Rios’ completion percentage, Brinkley applauds it. Rios is completing 65% of his passes. He is 32 of 49 passing for 389 yards.

Rios has done a nice job spreading the ball around. Eight players have caught at least one pass. He has shown the ability to throw the deep ball and fool defenses with the play-action pass.

One of Rios’ favorite targets is fullback Ryan Andrews. The two hooked up once last week, the play going for 32 yards early in the second quarter and setting up the team’s first score of the game.

Andrews caught a pass out of the backfield and pulled out a move unseen by him in the open field, gaining the longest pass of the night.

“He’s a big guy with little guy moves,” Rios said of Andrews, a 6-1, 224-pound junior. “Everybody thinks he’s just going to run [the defensive back] over, but he throws down a little Cedric Whitaker [juke] and ran [by the tackler].

“I’m always giving him a hard time about his hands. He’s always giving me a hard time.”

The person who really challenged Rios was his older brother, Alex Rios.

Alex was an offensive lineman on last year’s Newport Harbor team claiming a share of the Sunset League title. He offered the younger Rios some words before leaving Newport Beach for San Luis Obispo.

“You know what Rios?” Alex told Austin. “You really need to step up this year. You got to go out there and lead the team.”

This past weekend, Alex left Cuesta College, where he plans to play baseball, and visited his family.

He missed Newport Harbor’s game, but Austin told him all about it.

The two brothers had more than a second to catch up.