Prep football: Tars blank Vaqs

Barry Faulkner

NEWPORT BEACH - Homecoming queen Amy Ross will remember Friday

night forever. So, too, will the Newport Harbor High football team’s

defense, which has many reasons to savor the Sailors’ 24-0 Sea View

League triumph over Irvine.

After the hosts (6-0-1, 2-0 in league) avenged a pair of losses last

year to the Vaqueros (2-3-1, 0-2), including a 14-0 defeat in the CIF

Southern Section Division VI title game, senior Sailor middle linebacker

Cory Ray was hard-pressed to pick the sweetest aspect of the victory.

Was it winning on homecoming, posting the shutout, beating their most

competitive rival in the last decade, or avenging the 2000 title-game

loss?

“All of those,” said Ray, who later added the shutout, the third of

the season for Orange County’s stingiest defense, would likely trump the

other positives in a night of many for the Tars.

“Our defense played very well,” said Newport Coach Jeff Brinkley, who

moved closer to evening his career record against Irvine Coach Terry

Henigan, who now holds only a 7-6 edge.

“We did a nice job on (Terrell Vinson). He’s really a weapon and we

did a nice job containing him.”

Vinson, a junior Dana Hills transfer who had amassed 323 yards rushing

and receiving and scored six touchdowns in Irvine’s previous two games,

settled for 84 offensive yards, exactly half his team’s total. He carried

20 times, caught one pass, and was not a factor on special teams, an area

in which Irvine burned the Sailors last season.

“We worked very very hard on special teams in practice this week,”

Brinkley said. “Maybe having those two (Irvine) kickoff returns last year

woke us up.”

In addition to defense and special teams, the Sailors were, once

again, efficient on offense.

Senior quarterback Morgan Craig rushed for 52 yards and a touchdown

before halftime, then threw for 63 of his 119 passing yards after

intermission. Included in his 10-for-14 passing performance were

touchdown tosses to Adam Kerns and David Marshall.

Craig’s rushing touchdown, a 1-yard sneak, capped a seven-play,

35-yard first-quarter drive set up by junior safety Mike McDonald’s

interception.

After Irvine punted on its next possession, Harbor mixed the run and

pass to march 70 yards on nine plays, with Kerns snatching the capper

above his head on a 17-yard fade route with 4:42 left in the half.

The second of three Kerns conversion kicks gave the homecoming crowd a

comfortable 14-0 cushion with which to enjoy the halftime festivities.

Two big plays on Harbor’s first-half scoring drives involved Newport

fumbles recovered by a blue-jerseyed teammate. Senior center Jeff

Marshall hustled downfield to pounce on some coughed-up leather on the

first TD procession and McDonald came up with a loose ball after Craig’s

30-yard run to the Irvine 12 just two plays before the second TD.

“Those were really big,” Brinkley said of the fumble recoveries that

kept Irvine’s typically tenacious defense disappointed.

After a three-and-out on Irvine’s first third-quarter possession,

Harbor used five Dartangan Johnson runs and three passes to cover 78

yards and up its lead to 21-0.

Marshall, who was denied a touchdown after appearing to bull through

tacklers and over the goal line before Craig’s scoring sneak in the first

quarter, caught a 14-yard Craig pass in the end zone to put the game

away.

Kerns added a career-long 35-yard field goal with 4:24 left in the

game and the Sailors’ defense held strong.

Irvine’s offense did not cross midfield until late in the third

quarter and never got farther than the Harbor 29.

Linebackers Tyler Miller, Matt Encinias and Dave Erickson, cornerbacks

Kerns and Brian Gaeta, back after a five-game absence due to torn ankle

ligaments, safety Warren Junowich and a front line of ends Jim Rothwell

and David Marshall, tackle Scott Kohan, as well as nose guards Bryan

Breland and Genaro Mota, were also responsible for the whitewash.

A fourth-down pass on the same possession was dropped by an Irvine

receiver in the end zone to give Harbor its first shutout against Irvine

in the series’ 18 games.

“It took everybody, all 11 players,” Ray said. “Revenge is good, but I

think the shutout is the best.”

Johnson broke off a 58-yard gain to set up the final field goal and

give him 146 yards on 24 carries.

McDonald (47 receiving yards), Jon Vandersloot (31) and David Marshall

(30) all had three receptions for the winners.