Football: Sailors blank Yankees

The Newport Harbor High football team kicked off the season against someone it could beat.

The previous three season openers the Sailors failed to win. They broke out of their first-game skid in a big way on Friday. Newport Harbor thumped Los Angeles Hamilton, 40-0, at Davidson Field.

The Sailors avoided becoming the first team to drop four straight openers since the 1979-82 seasons. While that’s a long time ago, the stretch came four years before Jeff Brinkley took over at Newport Harbor.

Since Brinkley arrived, the Sailors aren’t used to dropping the first game of the season. They improved to 22-6-1 in such contests. Half of those setbacks came in the last three years against Trabuco Hills.

“I really wanted to find a team that did not play a first game,” Brinkley said. “These guys [from Hamilton] ended up playing one [last week], but it got to the point where we had to take a game. There was nobody left out there. That’s how we ended up with these guys. You obviously get a little leg up when you get that first game under your belt. We always were playing Trabuco and [it] had already played a game.”

Opening the season last week didn’t seem to help Hamilton.

The Yankees suffered their second blowout loss. They never challenged Newport Harbor, a CIF Southern Section Southwest Division finalist last year.

The Sailors have moved up to the newly created West Valley Division, which is equivalent to Division II. Hamilton is a Division II team out of the Los Angeles City Section. While the school has an enrollment close to 3,000, its football program isn’t imposing.

The Sailors took it to the Yankees, jumping to a 20-0 lead at halftime. Newport Harbor defensively shut down Hamilton, allowing four yards of offense in the first half.

Things began to spiral out of control for Hamilton on the third play from scrimmage. A bad snap to quarterback Armani Rogers in shotgun forced Rogers to pounce on the ball, but the ball popped out and defensive end Brett Beaudette recovered the fumble on Hamilton’s 13.

Three plays later, quarterback Cole Norris hit wide receiver Riley Gaddis for a 10-yard touchdown. The touchdown pass was the first of four for Norris, who threw a Newport Harbor single-season record 27 touchdowns a year ago.

Norris finished with 235 yards, completing 15 of 19 passes without throwing an interception. He was efficient all night, spreading the ball to six targets. The biggest beneficiaries were Gaddis and Keaton Cablay.

Cablay finished with the most receptions, six for 97 yards and one touchdown, but it was Gaddis who hauled in the most touchdowns. Gaddis caught four balls, three going for scores of 64, 14 and 10 yards. His final grab was the 14-yard score, leaving him with 99 yards.

“Riley is really deceivingly fast,” Norris said of the 6-foot-1, 208-pound senior. “After [receivers] Quest [Truxton] and Cory [Stowell] graduated, we knew someone’s going to have to step in those shoes. We have Keaton, but Riley’s [a load]. Booker [Hoey] is going to be a stud. He played a little quiet tonight. We’ll get him going.”

Brinkley is hoping tailback Chance Siemonsma gets going after rushing 12 times for 37 yards, as well as the team’s play on special teams. Kicker Michael Schultz played well, converting field-goal attempts from 37 and 26 yards in the opening quarter.

Plaguing the Sailors was their coverage on kickoffs. The four times the Yankees crossed midfield was due to long returns. Newport Harbor stopped each threat, as Hamilton turned the ball over on downs twice and once on a fumble.

Linebacker Trevor Shaw made one of the tackles on fourth down, as well as registering a sack. Beaudette finished with two sacks, and Gaddis and Cablay, both outside linebackers, had one apiece.

The defense preserved Newport Harbor’s first season-opening shutout in eight seasons. Next is a game at Palos Verdes and it will be an unusual one for the Sailors.

“Day game, [a] 3 o’clock [start],” Brinkley said. “It’ll be interesting. I’ve never played a regular-season game at 3 o’clock on a Friday.”

Brinkley’s team plans to arrive around lunchtime, and in better spirits going into the second game.

“It’s been a while since we’ve started 1-0,” said Norris, who’s looking forward to playing in the afternoon. “Change things up a little. [We] get out of class.”

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Newport Harbor 40, Hamilton 0

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Hamilton 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 — 0

Newport 13 – 7 – 13 – 7 — 40

FIRST QUARTER

NH – Gaddis 10 pass from Norris (Schultz kick), 9:56.

NH – Schultz 37 FG, 6:06.

NH – Schultz 26 FG, 2:42.

SECOND QUARTER

NH – Cablay 21 pass from Norris (Schultz kick), 6:28.

THIRD QUARTER

NH – Gaddis 64 pass from Norris (Schultz kick), 11:03.

NH – Gaddis 14 pass from Norris (kick failed), 2:48.

FOURTH QUARTER

NH – Kinder 1 run (Schultz kick), 4:04.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

H – Richards, 9-46.

NH – Kinder, 9-57, 1 TD; Siemonsma, 12-37.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

H – Rogers, 5-10-0, 22.

NH – Norris, 15-19-0, 235, 4 TDs.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

H – Shaw, 3-12.

NH – Gaddis, 4-99, 3 TDs; Cablay, 6-97, 1 TD.