Football: Tars fall back
LONG BEACH — The Newport Harbor High football team survived its highest scoring game in its history last week. The Sailors’ next contest involved a whole lot of points, mostly ones they gave up to Los Alamitos on Friday.
Overtime had decided the last two meetings between the Sailors and Griffins, but not their latest one. By halftime, they were halfway to combining for 100 points.
The Sailors are used to it, having played in a barnburner for the second time in as many weeks. They couldn’t keep up this time around.
Thirty-five points are how many Newport Harbor allowed in the first half, before it suffered a 62-27 lopsided loss to host Los Alamitos at Veterans Stadium in Long Beach. The defensive woes continued for the Sailors, who haven’t been able to slow down any offense in league, giving up 110 points in two games.
The 62 points Los Alamitos posted are the most any team has scored on the Sailors in their storied history. The drubbing did not sit well with Sailors Coach Jeff Brinkley. Seeing the Griffins, with the game out of reach, going for a two-point conversion after a touchdown four minutes into the fourth quarter irked Brinkley.
“I was surprised they went for two. I don’t know what [Los Alamitos Coach John Barnes’] point was,” said Brinkley, referring to when the Griffins brought back starting tailback Denzal Brantley and ran him to the left, giving the Griffins a 62-27 lead. “I don’t know if they’re upset we beat them [the previous] three years. I don’t know what the story was.”
Barnes said he didn’t run up the score on Newport Harbor (3-4, 1-1 in league). He added that his Griffins (6-1, 2-0), ranked No. 8 in the CIF Southern Section West Valley Division poll, needed all 62 points.
A combined six points decided Barnes’ last two setbacks to the Sailors. His Griffins were the ones producing six points almost whenever they wished against Newport Harbor on Friday.
Los Alamitos had its way moving the ball on the ground, finishing with seven rushing touchdowns. Brantley rushed 16 times for 194 yards and two touchdowns, and he caught two passes for 63 yards, including a 51-yard touchdown pass from Jack Telenko (254 yards on 14 of 17 passing). Brantley recorded 175 yards on the ground in the first half.
“We just couldn’t stop them,” Brinkley said. “We were moving the ball well and scoring some points [in the first 10 1/2 minutes], but it would take us 12 plays or whatever it did, and then they would go four plays, and all of a sudden be in the end zone.
“We’re going to have to get better to be able to compete with the rest of the teams in this league.”
Next for Newport Harbor is another road game, going up against defending league champion Edison. The Sailors last beat the Chargers 35 years ago.
Thirty-five isn’t a good number for Newport Harbor. That’s the amount Los Alamitos scored in the first half, a week after Newport Harbor gave up 36 second-half points to Huntington Beach, and it barely managed to hold on for a 52-48 win in the league opener. The Sailors needed a Newport Harbor single-game record-tying performance from wide receiver Keaton Cablay, 14 catches and four receiving touchdowns, and a record-setting six-touchdown passing effort by quarterback Cole Norris to pull off the win last week.
Against Los Alamitos, Cablay and Norris were chasing more Newport Harbor single-game records because the team had to pass on practically every down. The Sailors trailed by 25 with 4:21 to go in the first half, after fullback Matt Locher’s three-yard touchdown run, one of his three rushing touchdowns on the night.
Locher also scored on defense in the third quarter, giving Los Alamitos a 54-27 lead. The linebacker intercepted a Norris pass and returned it 41 yards for a touchdown.
Norris finished with 308 yards and three touchdowns on 22 of 43 passing. Cablay had 10 receptions for 138 yards and a touchdown. Those two players were the bright spots for an injury-riddled Newport Harbor team. Brinkley said he lost defensive backs Reed Rutter (broken arm) and Booker Hoey (dislocated shoulder) to serious injuries. The team went into Friday with left tackle Joey Stukonis (fractured ankle), running back Chance Siemonsma (knee) and middle linebacker Cole Smith (concussion) already out.
“I’m more concerned with the number of guys that we have injured,” Brinkley said. “We’re down to playing JV guys at the end of the game.”
With those JV players in, Barnes’ team kept scoring.
“I don’t even want to talk about it,” Barnes said whether the 62 points is a single-game record during his 37 years coaching, “but I’ll tell you one thing, we tied the national record for scoring tonight, 349 straight games we have not been shutout. Next week against Marina we’ll break it.
“[We ran the two-point play] because it made it a running clock. It had nothing to do [with running up the score], and the referees thanked me, and it’s just smart football. I would never run up the score on anybody. It was just to put the thing in running time.”
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Los Alamitos 62, Newport Harbor 27
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Newport 10 – 10 – 7 – 0 — 27
Los Al 21 – 14 – 19 – 8 — 62
FIRST QUARTER
NH – Schultz 42 FG, 8:11.
LA – Locher 2 run (Gasser kick), 6:15.
NH – Gaddis 30 pass from Norris (Schultz kick), 4:01.
LA – Brantley 30 run (Gasser kick), 1:23.
LA – Brantley 51 pass from Telenko (Gasser kick), :19.
SECOND QUARTER
LA – Brantley 16 run (Gasser kick), 7:07.
LA – Locher 3 run (Gasser kick), 4:21.
NH – Cablay 19 pass from Norris (Schultz kick), 1:19.
NH – Schultz 22 FG, :22.
THIRD QUARTER
LA – Locher 1 run (Furman kick), 8:44.
NH – Rapillo 43 pass from Norris (Schultz kick), 6:40.
LA – Telenko 1 run (kick blocked), 4:45.
LA – Locher 41 INT return (kick failed), 4:34.
FOURTH QUARTER
LA – Charbonnet 4 run (Brantley run), 8:18.
INDIVIDUAL RUSHING
NH – Kinder, 14-60.
LA – Brantley, 16-194, 2 TDs.
INDIVIDUAL PASSING
NH – Norris, 22-43-1, 308, 3 TDs.
LA – Telenko, 14-17-0, 254, 1 TD.
INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING
NH – Cablay, 10-138, 1 TD.
LA – Brantley, 2-63, 1 TD.