Sea View League : Newport Harbor Turns Tables on Woodbridge
Newport Harbor borrowed a page from its opponent’s book Friday night on Davidson Field, clinching the championship of the Sea View League not on the strength of quarterback Shane Foley’s arm, but on the strength of team defense.
The Sailors recorded their first shutout of the season, beating the league’s defense-artists, Woodbridge, 28-0, at their game.
The victory marked the third straight league title for the defending co-champion Sailors (6-0, 8-1). Their coach, Mike Giddings, described this team as “sometimes fun, sometimes frustrating,” and said he was “surprised and tickled” that it should overcome some early season flaws to earn the title.
Woodbridge (4-2, 6-3) dropped into third place, a half game behind the other defending co-champion, Saddleback (4-1, 7-1), which plays Costa Mesa tonight.
If Friday’s outcome was fairly predictable, the Sailors’ means of achieving it was not.
Defensive captain Joe Johnson, an all-league linebacker who had been forced by a broken hand to call his unit’s plays from the sidelines in recent games, returned in triumph for the title-clinching contest.
“He (Johnson) is to our defense as Shane Foley is to our offense,” Giddings said. “He is kind of their leader. Having him back makes a whale of a difference. He had been calling the defensive signals (from the sideline) . . . and just dying.”
Johnson’s pent-up desire to play, and his teammates’ delight at his return, was unleashed on Woodbridge’s offense in the first half. The newly-potent Sailor defense held the Warriors to 35 yards total offense in the first half.
Without the passing of quarterback Mike Juarez, starting his second game in place of the injured John Yurkovich, the Warriors gained only two yards rushing in the first half.
Meanwhile, Foley was suffering through what Giddings later called perhaps the worst game of his quarterback’s career. Foley completed 15 of 25 attempts for 236 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Nobody was groaning over those figures, but it was Foley’s two interceptions that caused him and the coach a bit of chagrin.
“I don’t mean to sound picky,” Giddings said, “and I don’t want to get him mad at me, but he forced a couple passes . . . and was throwing off his back foot, little things like that. Please let me qualify this: all great passers do it. They feel they can get a pass into the defense.”
Foley agreed.
“Coach Giddings was right in saying you should ask me,” he said. “I didn’t feel too good about my performance tonight, but I’m happy we clinched the title. The team comes first, so that kind of eclipses my disappointment in my own performance.
“I’ve had better nights--not to take anything away from their defense, which was tough. But I’m making a couple mistakes I shouldn’t be making at this point in the season . . . It’s lucky our defense was playing like that. This was the best defensive effort we’ve had by far this season.”
Unlike many quarterbacks, Foley was justified in accepting about one-eleventh of the credit for the Sailors’ fine defense. An uncommonly physical and resilient player for his height, weight and career position (6-2, 190, QB), Foley doubles as a safety. He picked off his third pass of the season in the first half against Juarez.
While the Sailor defense was holding the Warriors to one first down in the first half, receiver Kevin McClelland was lifting Newport Harbor to a 21-0 lead. McClelland scored on passes of 35 and 6 yards, as well as on a 3-yard run.
Bryan Wildman scored the last touchdown in the third quarter on a two-yard plunge.
In other action:
Laguna Beach 41, Corona del Mar 21--Laguna Beach quarterback John Kimball threw for three touchdowns and ran for another as the host Artists romped past the Sea Kings.
Kimball hooked up with Jeff Cummings for scoring passes of 23 and 70 yards, and Laguna Beach erupted for 27 second-quarter points to even its Sea View league record at 3-3.
Corona del Mar is 2-4 in league.
Estancia 31, University 14--Senior Ian MacDonald scored one touchdown and rushed for 122 yards on 16 carries to lead the Eagles the win Friday night at Irvine Stadium.
The Eagles (2-4, 4-5) jumped out out to a quick, 7-0, lead Craig Conte returned the opening kickoff 85 yards for a score.
A 37-yard pass play from Quarterback from Sean Kickade to Eric Dorn with 8:26 remaining in the first quarter gave the Eagles a 14-0 lead.
MacDonald’s 58-yard touchdown run extended the lead to 21-0 with 3:44 left in the first quarter.
University (0-6, 1-8) closed the gap to 21-7 when quarterback Bart Silverman ran for a one-yard touchdwon with 4:15 left in the second quarter.
However, Estancia increased its lead to 24-7 on Mike Rosellini’s 37-yard field goal with 53 seconds left in the first half.
University trimmed the lead to 24-14 on a one-yard touchdown run by Adam Leiter with 3:24 left in the third quarter, but the Eagles’ Brian Sherrard intercepted a Silverman pass late in the third quarter and returned it 45 yards for a score to secure the win.
Silverman completed 18 of 27 passes for 241 yards, but the Trojans gained only 23 yards on rushing.
Kinkade completed only 2 of 11 passes for 53 yards and was intercepted once.