Santa Margarita Surprises Sailors

It was not the kind of matchup that favored Santa Margarita.

Newport Harbor was a big, physical team that could wear the Eagles down with four quarters of pounding.

But after 48 minutes of football Friday night at Saddleback College, it was the finesse team that stood victorious after a commanding 19-0 Sea View League victory over the Sailors to clinch third place and an automatic Division IV playoff berth.

Beforehand, Santa Margarita Coach Jim Hartigan said his team was ready, and he proved a good judge of character.

“There was no problem getting focused for this game,” he said. “Everything’s at stake.”

Not everything.

In all likelihood, Newport Harbor (7-3, 4-3 in league) will get an at-large berth into the playoffs. The Sailors tied Woodbridge for fourth, but beat the Warriors a week ago.

They were hardly the same team on Friday.

“We played about like we practiced,” Newport Harbor Coach Jeff Brinkley said. “All week we were flat as we could be. That’s my job.”

The Sailors were coming off emotional weeks against league champion Irvine and Woodbridge. But the final score caught everyone by surprise, including Hartigan.

“Honestly,” he said, “I didn’t expect this kind of performance. But I expected us to peak sometime. Hopefully, we’re peaking at the right time.”

Newport Harbor is the kind of team that should have given the Eagles (8-2, 5-2) trouble. Instead, Derek Yankoff completed 14 of 27 passes for 227 yards, including touchdowns of 55 and 59 yards to Brian Finneran. Yankoff also rushed 10 times for 91 yards.

Finneran, who trailed the county reception leaders by one entering the week, caught seven passes for 146 yards.

The defense held Newport’s Wade Tift to 51 yards in 13 carries. Tift had been averaging 109 yards.

“The defensive linemen (Rik Glover, Robert Craven, Joe Hauke, Josh Beckett, Frank Brenes) did a great job,” Hartigan said. “We were focused as a team and as a coaching staff.”

He felt the latter was especially important, saying that the Eagles were out-coached in last year’s 27-16 loss to the Sailors.

Santa Margarita came out firing, getting first downs on its first three plays. The Eagles eventually punted, but certainly had established themselves. They scored on their next two possessions.

After a 19-yard punt, Santa Margarita took five plays to go 58 yards. Keyed by a 33-yard pass to Rueben Vaughan and a 17-yard run by Chris Collins, Yankoff scored from the four, picking up a block on the outside from Finneran.

He added a 55-yard scoring pass to Finneran on the final play of the first quarter, and a 59-yard bomb midway through the third.

“To this point,” Hartigan said, “This was as perfect a game as we’ve played.”