Newport Harbor stays hot against CdM

COSTA MESA - An efficient, mistake-free offense, a solid defense and a strange sequence of plays took Newport Harbor to a 37-7 victory over Corona del Mar in the Battle of the Bay at Orange Coast College on Thursday night.

Newport Harbor (3-0) leads the series, 35-13, and has beaten Corona del Mar in 10 of their past 11 meetings.

Corona del Mar lost for the first time this season. The Sea Kings are 3-1.

It was victory No. 199 for Newport Harbor coach Jeff Brinkley. The Sailors play at Dana Hills next Friday. When Brinkley gets No. 200, he will join a group of six other active Orange County coaches to reach that milestone. The group includes John Barnes of Los Alamitos, Mike Marrujo of Valencia, Bob Johnson of Mission Viejo and Terry Henigan of Irvine.

Brinkley was pleased with the Sailors' effort.

"The defense played great tonight," he said. "The offense did just enough. I thought we were a little sluggish at the start, and Corona del Mar had a good scheme for us.

"Corona's been rolling. They'll be great in their league (the Pacific Coast League) and great in their division (the Southern Division, in the playoffs)."

Newport Harbor junior running back Cedric Whitaker rushed for 136 yards on 17 carries. He got 64 of them on one carry. Whitaker rushed for 149 yards last week against Loyola of Los Angeles.

Sailors quarterback Austin Rios was an efficient 10 of 17 for 106 yards and three touchdowns.

Newport Harbor kicker Dillan Freiberg kicked three field goals and stretched his county-record streak of successful extra points to 68.

Harbor defensive back Gabe Gomez said it was easy to get ready for the Battle of the Bay game, even after beating a big-name program like Loyola the week before.

"We were fired up," he said. "It's a rivalry game. We had some jitters at the beginning, then we played the way we're supposed to play."

After a scoreless first quarter, Harbor's Whitaker scored on an 8-yard run with 9:30 left in the second quarter to finish a 7-play, 69-yard drive to give the Sailors a 7-0 lead.

Frieberg, who earlier this season set the county record for consecutive successful extra-point kicks, made a 42-yard field goal to make it 10-0, then added a 35-yard kick for a 13-0 lead.

Then came the strange sequence.

Corona del Mar had the ball and was looking at fourth-and-long deep in its own half of the field, with four seconds to go in the half. Sea Kings quarterback Michael Borchard took the snap and ran around the backfield in an effort to kill those final seconds. But he was tackled with one second to go, and with the change of possession the clock was stopped there. Newport Harbor quickly lined up, snapped the ball and Sailors quarterback Austin Rios threw to his right to uncovered Parker Norton, who calmly took the few steps into the end zone for a touchdown that pushed the lead to 20-0.

"The play changed the momentum," Gomez said.

Harbor rolled through the third quarter, with 10 more points more points, and added another touchdown in the fourth. The Sea Kings got their touchdown in the final seconds of the game.

Corona del Mar plays Magnolia next Friday at Newport Harbor.