Football: UNBEATEN!

Tony Altobelli

ALISO VIEJO - Just enough offense and more than enough defense led

Newport Harbor to its third unbeaten regular season in its 69-year

history as the Sailors held off Aliso Niguel, 14-7, Friday night.

“Our defense has been doing a great job all year and tonight, they

really stepped up,” Coach Jeff Brinkley said. “It’s a great feeling for

our kids. They’ll walk away from the game with this memory for the rest

of their lives.”

The win gives the Sailors (9-0-1, 4-0 in league) the Sea View League

title outright and will most likely get a No. 2 seed in the CIF Southern

Section Division VI playoffs begin next week.

According to Brinkley, it wasn’t quite the emotional intensity he

thought the Sailors would bring against a Wolverine team that needed the

win for any shot at a playoff berth.

“We had great practices all week and tonight, I don’t think the

players realized the importance of this ball game,” Brinkley said.

“Hopefully this will be a slap in the face for our guys heading into the

playoffs. I guess you can only tell 16 to 18 year olds this is a

do-or-die game so many times.”

Running with the bullseye on his chest for Aliso Niguel was Iman

Nikzad.

After gaining 351 yards and five touchdowns last week against

Woodbridge, Newport held him to only 66 yards on 17 carries and no

touchdowns.

“We told the guys all week to fly to the ball,” Brinkley said. “If you

give him a step, he’ll be gone. We wanted to force Aliso to throw the

ball and I think we did that tonight.”

Newport opened the scoring and never trailed the entire game.

Quarterback Chris Manderino found Billy Clayton with a 10-yard touchdown

pass late in the first quarter to give Newport a 7-0 lead.

It was a very short-lived lead as Nikzad returned the ensuing kickoff

84 yards for Aliso’s lone score of the night to tie the game.

Gaining most of the yardage for the Sailors was tailback Andre

Stewart.

Despite being stopped for negative yardage nine times, the senior

still managed to rush for 186 yards on 32 carries, allowing Newport to

score their two touchdowns.

Manderino found Clayton again in the end zone with two minutes

remaining in the half, this time on a 17-yard strike in the back of the

end zone.

Clayton’s diving snag regained the lead for the Sailors, 14-7, which

turned out to be the final score.

“Billy did a great job tonight,” Brinkley said. “Chris also did a

great job of finding the open man when he needed to.”

Aliso Niguel (5-5, 1-3) managed to drive to within sniffing distance

of the end zone on the final drive of the half, but was stopped at the

5-yard line and then missed a 23-yard field goal attempt as time expired

in the first half.

The third quarter saw both teams struggle offensively, as neither

could gain the upper hand.

Finally, with 9:21 remaining in the game, Aliso had the ball on

Newport’s 36-yard line as the result of a fumble recovery.

The Wolverines went deep on the first play of the drive, but Kelsey

Peterson came up with the interception, one of four Sailors’ picks on the

night.

From there, Newport took off nearly five minutes of the fourth quarter

clock, driving the ball all the way down to the Wolverines’ three.

But Aliso held and when Newport missed a 20-yard field goal attempt,

the Wolverines had one more shot to tie.

However, three plays later, Billy Clayton, after catching two

touchdowns earlier, came up with the fourth interception of the night,

putting the nail in Aliso’s coffin.

Newport ran out the final three-plus minutes, thanks to an 18-yard run

from Manderino on third and 10 and the unbeaten regular season was

complete.

“Now, we’ll have to see who we get in the playoffs,” Brinkley said.

“It all comes down to the draw. We’ll have to make sure we don’t play as

sloppy as we did tonight.”