San Clemente stays unbeaten despite turnovers

SAN CLEMENTE - San Clemente had four turnovers, all deep in Newport Harbor territory, and 13 penalties for 145 yards, but the fifth-ranked Tritons still found a way to pull out a 24-12 nonleague victory over the Sailors on Friday night at San Clemente High.

"That was definitely not the win that we wanted," said Utah-bound quarterback Travis Wilson, who was 12 of 19 for 154 yards with two interceptions for the Tritons. "We definitely need to prepare harder and work harder in practice. It was definitely not up to what we can play.

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"I'm glad we got the win, but we really need to improve next week."

San Clemente coach Jon Hamro said his team can't afford to be that sloppy when it comes to playing in South Coast League games and the Pac-5 Division playoffs, but the Tritons did improve to 5-0 with the victory. Newport Harbor dropped to 1-3.

"We kept them in the game between the turnovers and the penalties," Hamro said. "We're gonna have battles down the road here and that's not gonna be in our favor. When we do execute, we're moving the ball, we're stopping them.

"Against a team like that that's well-coached they're going to hang around and have a chance to beat you late. We were lucky to avoid that situation late. We should have put them away a long time ago."

San Clemente's Christian Tober took the opening kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown, but a holding penalty put the Tritons back to their own 26. San Clemente drove all the way to Newport Harbor's 1 before getting pushed back to the 16 because of a personal foul.

The Tritons settled for a 26-yard field goal by Bret Miller. The 12-play drive that took 6 minutes and 24 seconds off the clock looked impressive at times with the exception of the two costly penalties.

The Tritons defense was merciless for most of the first half and gave the offense great field position for their second series. San Clemente put together an 8-play, 42-yard scoring drive. Nick Pasquale scored on a 7-yard run on the opening play of the second quarter to put the Tritons up 10-0.

San Clemente's Julian Perry partially blocked a punt and Austin Baker recovered at Newport Harbor's 23, but nothing became of it after Wilson threw his first interception.

Mike Elespuru, who had 23 carries for 129 yards, scored on a 5-yard run with 1:48 remaining in the half and it looked like San Clemente was in control with a 17-0 lead.

But Newport Harbor responded with a 6-play, 80-yard scoring drive. Sailors quarterback Cole Blower, who hadn't completed a pass and was taking a pounding, completed his first pass, a 6-yarder to Vince Aqueveque. Then he completed three consecutive passes to Landon Gyulay, including a 40-yarder and a 16-yard touchdown pass with 18 seconds left in the half. The Sailors missed the extra-point attempt, but they had momentum.

Titus Hasson returned the opening kickoff of the second half 65 yards to San Clemente's 33. Three plays later, Blower hooked up with Gyulay for a 23-yard touchdown. The two-point conversion attempt failed, but the Sailors were back in the game.

The Tritons continued to cough up the ball, a fumble inside the 5-yard line by Elespuru and another interception by Wilson.

San Clemente got its act together late in the third quarter. Wilson hit Tober for a 48-yard gain that set up Nick Pasquale's 3-yard touchdown run on the third play of the fourth quarter. That gave the Tritons a 24-12 cushion.

Late in the game, Newport Harbor tried to get something going and the Tritons helped them with two personal foul penalties following an 11-yard pass play. That turned into a 41-yard play and moved the Sailors to San Clemente's 32. But San Clemente's defense stiffened up and Landon Cook sacked Blower for a 7-yard loss on third-and-15 to force a punt.

San Clemente picked up six first downs to run out the final 3 minutes and 28 seconds to secure the victory.

Elespuru left the game in the third quarter with a left knee sprain, but he said he was fine and would be back next week.