HUNTINGTON BEACH – Early in the third quarter of Friday night’s Sunset League game between Newport Harbor and Fountain Valley, Sailors running back Cole Kinder had a 2-yard touchdown run negated by a penalty.
No matter. Kinder took another handoff on the next play and punched it in again, this time from 11 yards out, punctuating the theme of the evening: Nothing was stopping Cole Kinder.
There wasn’t even any semblance of containing Kinder ran for 285 yards and six touchdowns in a 66-34 win over Fountain Valley at Huntington Beach High.
It didn’t take long for Kinder to get to work. Newport (3-4, 1-1) was gifted excellent field position after recovering a fumble on the Barons’ 22-yard line on the opening kickoff. Kinder hauled in a pass and ran twice, navigating all 22 of those yards for his first score just three plays into the game.
On the next possession, Kinder gobbled up 42 yards in four plays, finishing with a 5-yard touchdown run. Less than four minutes had surpassed and Kinder had accounted for more points than Newport had scored in its previous two games combined. And he wasn’t finished.
Kinder found the end zone three more times before halftime. .
The Barons (1-6, 0-2) kept within striking distance, as quarterback Andrew Ross tossed three first-half touchdowns, two to Angel Hernandez. A 68-yard touchdown pass to Brandon Krause whittled the deficit to 45-27, before another Kinder touchdown put the game away.
