Advertisement

Two-Minute Drill: Norris humbled by Foley

Share

Senior quarterback Cole Norris is the Newport Harbor High career passing yards leader after Friday night’s 41-22 nonleague win at Manhattan Beach Mira Costa.

Norris had 265 yards, four touchdown passes and an interception in the win for the Sailors (2-3). He now has 5,549 career passing yards, surpassing the mark of 5,364 set by Shane Foley, a 1986 Newport Harbor graduate who went on to play at USC.

Norris, who broke the record on a 12-yard pass to senior receiver Keaton Cablay in the second quarter, is headed to Northern Arizona. He said he has talked to Foley a couple of times, and one thing stood out.

Advertisement

“Shane’s a great guy,” Norris said. “He’s super-humble about [the record]. He said something, ‘Records are made to be broken,’ and that was one of the most humbling things I’ve heard from him. It’s very cool [to break the record], but then again, it’s just a record. You can always get better and move on to next week.”

Norris now has 14 touchdown passes and three interceptions this season.

— Matt Szabo

•Estancia High heads into Orange Coast League play in a lot better shape than it did a year ago.

The Eagles won their second straight game, a 34-20 result at Ocean View, closing out nonleague play with momentum.

Estancia’s first league game is against Calvary Chapel (2-3) at Jim Scott Stadium on Thursday at 7 p.m. Estancia (3-2) will be the visiting team.

Last year, Estancia had lost two of three games before league began, and it ended up dropping its first two league contests. This year, Estancia is hitting on all cylinders, having posted at least 34 points in four of its five games.

Calvary Chapel has lost three in a row, including a 30-14 setback to University. Estancia won at University, 35-10, on Sept. 26.

Estancia has defeated Calvary Chapel in each of the last five years. Coach Mike Bargas is 6-1 against Calvary Chapel.

— David Carrillo Peñaloza

•Another Sailors team captain, senior defensive end Brett Beaudette, had a breakout type of game against Mira Costa with a career-high five quarterback sacks. Two of them in the first half caused fumbles, which were recovered by Sailors teammates Jack Rapillo and Joey Stukonis, respectively.

Beaudette, who stands 6-foot tall and weighs 195 pounds, also is a standout wrestler for Newport Harbor. He now has nine quarterback sacks this season, which betters his mark from last year by one just five games into the season.

Look for him to continue terrorizing quarterbacks as Sunset League play begins this week for Sailors at home against Huntington Beach.

“I’m definitely excited and I’m not planning on stopping [at nine sacks],” Beaudette said. “I’m trying to get better every week. I want this team to be successful. It’s my last year [of high school]; gotta do something with it.”

Beaudette, who also plays tight end, caught three passes for 31 yards against Mira Costa.

— Matt Szabo

•Another impressive player for the Sailors in their nonleague finale was sophomore tailback Cole Kinder. Kinder, making his first career start with senior Chance Siemonsma (ACL/MCL) out for the year, rushed for 146 yards on 20 carries. That total included rushes of 49 yards and 29 yards.

The 49-yard run was one that Kinder almost broke right before halftime, when the Sailors seemed content to kneel with the ball at their own five-yard line and 18 seconds left. But Mira Costa Coach Don Morrow called timeout after Norris kneeled, so Newport Harbor Coach Jeff Brinkley decided to run Kinder right up the middle.

Kinder broke off the 49-yard run, tackled by the last man on defense. After Norris completed a 16-yard pass to Riley Gaddis, it set up a 49-yard field goal try that the Sailors narrowly missed as the half ended, so they settled for a 21-7 halftime advantage.

— Matt Szabo

•As it did on both sides of the ball Friday night, Sage Hill School players came together to make a statement in their 28-0 nonleague victory over visiting Walnut Southlands Christian.

All Lightning players wore powder pink socks and hot pink shoelaces to recognize Breast Cancer Awareness Month, embracing the trend of pink uniform accessories worn by players in the NFL and at some colleges.

— Barry Faulkner

•Estancia’s Dylan Laurent showed how he could affect a game in many ways.

The sophomore returns punts and kickoffs, lines up at wide receiver and running back, and plays cornerback. He made big plays at every position last week at Ocean View.

In the second half, Laurent returned a punt 91 yards for a touchdown and a kickoff 59 yards to set up the offense on the opponent’s 40-yard line. Laurent’s kick return led to an Estancia touchdown in the third quarter.

Laurent picked off a pass on the Eagles’ one, preventing Ocean View from extending its 7-0 lead late in the first quarter. He finished with four tackles.

Laurent also rushed three times for 30 yards and hauled in a 39-yard catch, helping him finish with 246 total yards.

— David Carrillo Peñaloza

•The Lightning had 175 of its 231 passing yards in the first half, including 10 completions in 14 attempts by senior quarterback CJ McCord, as well as a 52-yard touchdown pass on a reverse from receiver Vince Wetmore to sophomore Miles McCord.

The aerial display virtually carried the Sage Hill offense, which had minus-two yards rushing in nine attempts before intermission.

The Lightning did produce 118 yards on the ground in the final two periods, with 73 of those coming on a scoring scramble up the sideline by CJ McCord that upped the lead to 21-0 midway through the third quarter.

Senior Alfonso Corona had third-quarter runs of 14 and 19 yards on his way to collecting 49 yards on five attempts, while CJ McCord, who was sacked three times and lost yardage on a fumble, finished with 54 net yards on five carries.

— Barry Faulkner

•Estancia’s defense didn’t allow Ocean View quarterback Blake Meyer to complete a pass from the six-minute mark in the second quarter until the four-minute mark in the third quarter.

During the 14-minute stretch, Meyer threw 10 straight incomplete passes. Meyer wound up completing only 13 of 33 passes for 193 yards and a touchdown, along with throwing an interception.

— David Carrillo Peñaloza

•Estancia moved up to the No. 6 spot in the CIF Southern Section Southern Division poll. The Eagles were ranked ninth last week. Estancia is the lone Orange Coast League team in the top 10.

— David Carrillo Peñaloza

•The Sage Hill defense, which posted the program’s first shutout in 50 games, dating back to 2009, was solid against the run and the pass, allowing only two of Southlands Christian’s 60 plays to gain more than a dozen yards.

In addition, 17 plays by the visiting Eagles resulted in two or fewer yards, including eight running plays stopped at or behind the line of scrimmage and six more plays that netted just one yard.

By contrast, 10 of the Lightning’s 16 pass completions resulted in double-digit gains.

— Barry Faulkner

•CJ McCord’s 179 passing yards Friday upped his season total to 1,153 and brought his career total to 3,631 yards. His two touchdown passes Friday give him 13 for the season, matching last year’s total.

McCord has thrown only two interceptions this season and eight in his three varsity seasons, during which he has amassed 29 touchdown passes.

— Barry Faulkner

Advertisement