Sailors Get Bearings, Rout Rebels

It took Newport Harbor’s defense one drive to solve Savanna’s three-back offense. But once the confusion ended, the rout began.

Newport Harbor answered Savanna’s early touchdown with five of its own as it stayed unbeaten and rolled to a 35-12 victory at home before about 3,000 fans.

“I was really concerned,” Newport Harbor running back/defensive back Brad Baker said. “We came out a little flat. They took it to us at the beginning. They run the ball a lot and they have a lot of fast runners.”

But they were slowed down once Newport Harbor figured out where the Rebels were going. Savanna drove 80 yards in 10 plays as three different backs carried the ball, but the Rebels didn’t score again until their second-to-last drive of the game.

“It’s kind of tough on your kids when they’ve never seen this thing,” said Newport Harbor Coach Jeff Brinkley, who didn’t know what to call Savanna’s three-back look. “We were a little flat. Fortunately, they settled in and played great defense.”

Newport Harbor’s offense, led by Baker’s 146 yards rushing and three touchdowns, also settled in and played some pretty good ball-control offense. Baker rushed for 111 of his yards by halftime, but Newport Harbor only led 12-6.

The Sailors (5-0) broke the game open on their first drive of the third quarter. With 8 minutes 23 seconds left, quarterback Steve Gorman hit a wide-open Garrett Govaars in stride for a 74-yard touchdown pass. Gorman threw to Oscar Garcia for a two-point conversion to make it 20-6.

“We talked at halftime about how they were packing everybody in,” Brinkley said. “So we drew up the post to Govaars. Steve can get the ball out there. We can’t let people pack it in on us like that without making them pay.”

Said Baker: “We’ve been waiting for the passing game to come along.”

Gorman finished six of 13 for 129 yards and two touchdowns. His first scoring pass went to Garcia from eight yards out.

Once Newport Harbor got a comfortable lead, Savanna began to self-destruct. In the final eight minutes of the third quarter, the Rebels committed three turnovers, the most costly was a fumbled exchange on their one-yard line that led to a Baker one-yard plunge.

Baker scored the last of his three touchdowns on a three-yard run on the last play of the third quarter.

Brinkley seemed happy to have survived the week.

“Practice this week was not very emotional,” he said. “But when it came to game time the kids were ready to play.”