SOUTHERN SECTION DIVISION VI FOOTBALL PLAYOFFS : Newport Harbor a 27-7 Victim Of ‘Near-Perfect’ Sunny Hills

One thing for certain, the Sunny Hills High School football team did not play a perfect game Friday night. The Lancers did fumble once and there was that costly face-mask penalty that set up a Newport Harbor touchdown.

However, that was about the extent of Sunny Hills’ mistakes.

With their 27-7 victory at Buena Park High School, the Lancers advanced to the Southern Section Division VI semifinals for the sixth time in the last eight seasons. They will play Valencia (11-1) next Friday.

It will be difficult for Sunny Hills (9-3) to duplicate Friday night’s performance. Every aspect of the Lancers’ game was in over-drive:

* The offense had 279 yards rushing, including 156 by Mike Sullivan.

* The defense gave up only 142 yards and sacked Sailor quarterback Steve Walker eight times.

* The special teams lended a hand with two field goals by Matt Young and a 95-yard kickoff return by Kenny Overby to start the second half.

“If you scripted this game, it couldn’t have come off better,” Sunny Hills Coach Tim Devaney said. “We’ll have to look at the (game) films, but I can’t think of much we did wrong.”

Sullivan’s fumble on the Newport Harbor 14-yard line was one error, but it would be hard to come down on the senior running back. After all, it was his 74-yard touchdown run in the second quarter that broke open a 10-0 game.

On the play, Sullivan took a pitchout, swept right and then cut behind a vicious block by Overby. At that point it was clear sailing.

“Overby took the guy out and all I had to do was make a couple of moves,” said Sullivan, who averaged 11.1 yards per carry. “It was, ‘Sully left,’ then, ‘Sully right.’ Then it was off to the races.”

When not blocking for Sullivan, Overby did some running of his own. He gained 95 yards in 16 carries, 71 of which came in the first half.

The only thing out of sync for the Lancers was their passing game. Jamal McKenzie completed only two of seven passes for 13 yards. However, he did score Sunny Hills’ first touchdown on a 15-yard bootleg in the second quarter.

Newport Harbor’s only score in the second quarter came after a 50-yard kickoff return by Russell Olshefski, who was face-masked at the end of the play. The penalty gave the Sailors (8-4) the ball on the Lancer 26 and, six plays later, Michael Stipe scored on a one-yard run.

The rest of the game, the Lancers took turns harassing Walker, who lost 52 yards on the eight sacks.