COSTA MESA – It was a short night for Newport Harbor senior running back Cole Kinder and that’s just the way Coach Jeff Brinkley liked it.
Kinder carried the ball 13 times, all in the first half, for 153 yards and five touchdowns. His final carry came at the 6:39 mark of the second quarter. In all, it was just the effort the Sailors needed in a 43-19 home victory over El Rancho of Pico Rivera on Thursday night at Estancia High.
“We were doing a great job up front and he ran hard tonight,” Brinkley said of Kinder. “He’s starting to figure it out, to get his pads down and finish runs.
“He’s becoming more physical. That was probably one of the things we wanted to work on with him the most is finishing runs. He’s always had good speed for a big kid and now he’s starting to finish and now you see when he gets a little crease, he’s pretty quick.”
The defense for El Rancho (0-3) had trouble containing Kinder. He went for 22 yards on his first carry and capped that drive with a 4-yard touchdown. He also added touchdown runs of 1, 7, 42 and 9 as the Sailors (2-0) built a 43-6 halftime lead.
“Our line blocked great and luckily I had speed tonight and could just get around El Rancho,” Kinder said. “This year, I’m finally getting my breakaway speed back. Every single offseason, I probably work harder than anybody in the county. This year it is starting to pay off.”
His speed was on display on the first possession of the second half. Kinder took the handoff, got to the edge and sprinted down the sidelines for the 42-yard touchdown.
Kinder was replaced by Chris Bailey, who rushed for 150 yards on 26 carries.
The Newport Harbor defense had a strong first half, coming up with three interceptions, two from Jake Bashore and one from Gage Roberson.
“We did a great job up front,” Brinkley said of his offensive line. “We had them out-manned we weren’t going to keep pounding him (Kinder). We took him out early. That was enough.”
El Rancho scored the only two touchdowns of the second half, a 7-yard run by Adam Chandler and a 5-yard run by Richard Amaya.
Contact the writer: dcalhoun@scng.com
