Newport Harbor Shows It Knows the Route to the Finals

Newport Harbor’s Brad LaBass had never heard of the play until his coach told him to run an “out pattern instead of a curl.”

And so he did. Quarterback Josiah Fredriksen passed to LaBass, who held on to the ball and dragged both feet to score with 50 seconds left.

That gave Newport Harbor a stunning 23-16 victory over top-seeded Servite in the Southern Section Division V semifinals Friday in front of 6,500 at Cal State Fullerton

“It was designed for me,” LaBass said afterward, “and I couldn’t wait for the ball.”

The victory puts fourth-seeded Newport Harbor (12-1) in the section finals for the second time in three years. The Sailors will play the winner of tonight’s Santa Margarita-Tustin game.

Servite (11-2) was denied a third consecutive trip to the section finals. The Friars lost in 1994 to Newport Harbor, 20-15. They lost last year to El Toro, 27-17.

Servite had averaged 51.6 points in its seven-game winning streak, and quarterback Greg Cicero was coming off a off a 435-yard performance in the 47-34 victory over El Toro.

But Cicero lost two fumbles, the second leading to the only touchdown in the first three quarters.

Cicero finished the game eight of 23 passing for 191 yards and one touchdown. Three of those were for 42, 48 and 42 yards.

“They did a real good job of covering us all night, forcing me to go to the fourth or fifth receivers,” Cicero said. “We started to adjust near the end and run the ball, but it was too little too late.”

Steve Ward, the county’s leading receiver who caught nine passes for 282 yards last week, caught one pass for 12--in the final 30 seconds.

No Servite receiver caught more than two passes.

Cicero lost two fumbles, one leading to Danny Pulido’s 16-yard touchdown reception, and was sacked three times by Newport Harbor’s defensive line. Sailors Coach Jeff Brinkley said his linemen had to have a big game and they did. Erich Schader had two sacks and Reed Johns had one.

Though Vince Reed rushed 18 times for 90 yards, the offense netted only 65 on the ground.

It looked like Servite had the game in the bag after taking a fourth-quarter lead.

Fredriksen’s pass was batted by Kurt Vollers and intercepted by Nick Baclit at the Sailors 28 on the first play of the final quarter. Four plays later, Reed scored from one yard, and Cicero passed to Chris Bystedt for the two-point conversion and 8-7 lead.

But Ray Ohrel, who rushed 30 times for 155 yards, gained 21 on a screen, and then scored on a 16-yard run with 7:47 left, and Fredriksen’ pass to Danny Pulido on the point-after made it 15-8.

But Newport Harbor’s hopes were momentarily dashed when Nick Rodriguez returned the kickoff 51 yards, and Cicero’s 42-yard screen pass to Rubalcava for the touchdown, coupled with Ward’s catch on the conversion gave Servite the lead again.

The biggest play of the half for Servite was the one that disappeared from the statistics sheet.

Newport Harbor had the ball at its 46, and Fredriksen completed a pass to Pulido, who clearly fumbled. The ball was picked up by linebacker Adrian Hinkley at the Servite 44, and Hinkley was headed for a 54-yard touchdown run to tie the score. But there was an inadvertent whistle.

After officials discussed their gaffe, they decided to play the down over.