Tars leaving foes with blank stare

The Newport Harbor High football team’s defense has posted eight zeros in eight quarters this season for one simple reason: Eleven guys all doing their jobs.

That’s what Sailors Coach Jeff Brinkley said when asked to explain the stifling success of his defenders, who blanked Irvine on Friday, 27-0, after opening with a 20-0 dismantling of Aliso Niguel.

“Everybody is just playing well within the system,” said Brinkley, whose team has posted back-to-back shutouts to open the season for the first time since 1992.

“The defensive coaches [Tony Ciarelli (coordinator and secondary), Mike Bargas (line), Matt Burns (linebackers) and Garrett Govaars (secondary)] do a good job of scheming it up and putting our guys in the right place,” Brinkley said. “Then, the kids, I think, believe in the system and they know if they take care of their responsibility, usually things will work out well for us.”

The Sailors (2-0) have made things unpleasant for opposing offensives, which have combined for just 13 first downs, 113 rushing yards and 72 passing yards thus far.

Returning starters Mike Calabrese and Nick Frazier, All-CIF Southern Section Division VI performers for last season’s Division VI champions at tackle and middle linebacker, respectively, have helped the Sailors remain strong up the middle.

But newcomers have obviously stepped up to more than hold their own.

Noseguard Charles Vickery, ends Bryce Jardine and Andrew Ward, as well as outside ‘backers Enzo Weber and Brandon Kula have rounded out the front seven.

Starting in the secondary are corners Jarrett Daniel and Brice Stillman, strong safety Brett Houten and free safety Kevin Williams.

Kula, a sophomore who made the first three tackles against Irvine, is the only non-senior among the starting unit.

Brinkley said junior tackle Chase Obenauer, freshman linebacker Cecil Whiteside, sophomore corner J.B. Green, junior corner Juan Guzman and junior safety Henry Pyle have also contributed thus far.

It may be too soon to start comparing this unit with some stout Sailor defenses throughout the years, but Brinkley said there is one universal characteristic shared by this group.

“It’s a very aggressive group,” Brinkley said. “We were watching tape of the Irvine game and I slowed one play down, then froze it for all the coaches. On this one play, we had seven guys swarming the ballcarrier. You couldn’t even see the ballcarrier, but you knew he was in there somewhere. It was pretty amazing. All these guys want to make the tackle and they all want to get to the ball. There’s no one standing around out there.”

The defense’s work has taken some pressure off an emerging offense, which is still a little less efficient than Brinkley would like, particularly when it comes to finishing drives with touchdowns.

“I’d still like to see us be a little more productive in the red zone,” said Brinkley, who coordinates the unit that has produced 30 first downs and nearly 267 yards per game, with seven touchdowns.

“For the second week in a row, we could have had another score or two early in the [Irvine] game. That’s one area we need to improve upon. We need to score when we get those opportunities.”

The back-to-back shutouts mark the fifth such occurrence in Brinkley’s 21 seasons at the helm. Only the 1992 team did it to open the season. Brinkley’s first Newport Harbor team in 1986 posted three shutouts in a row.

The school record for consecutive shutouts is five, posted the first five games of the 1941 season.

The Sailors will try to extend the streak against Corona del Mar, which they blanked last season, in the Battle of the Bay. The annual crosstown showdown is Thursday at 7 at Newport Harbor.

Elsewhere, Corona del Mar, Costa Mesa and Estancia are coming off losses, while Sage Hill had a bye.

Troy (3-0) amassed 343 of its 462 yards of total offense on the ground, to overcome a 301-yard passing performance by CdM senior quarterback Taylor Hughes.

Hughes completed 15 of 24 attempts for three touchdowns, though he missed the first series for disciplinary reasons, Freeman said.

Freeman was disappointed in his team’s modest rushing production (128 yards on 27 carries) particularly since Troy was committing only seven defenders in the box.

Freeman said Hunt Rychel, who was taken from the field to a hospital in an ambulance after being knocked out following a reception Friday, came away with a concussion and a sore neck.

Rychel, averaging nearly 30 yards on his seven catches this season, three of which have produced touchdowns, is expected to miss this week’s game.

Freeman said 5-foot-8, 178-pound sophomore Dan DiChirro — filling in for noseguard Stephen Deverian, who missed the game with a sprained knee — sparkled against much bigger Troy blockers. Freeman said DiChirro will continue to see time, even when Deverian returns (possibly this week).

Freeman also praised the defensive work of senior outside linebacker Tom Folks whose eight tackles included four big hits.

CdM, 1-2 for the first time since opening the 2000 season 0-3, will try to end a seven-game losing streak to Newport Harbor this week.

But Mustangs first-year coach Jeremy Osso said his team’s ability to hang with the unbeaten Oilers — It was 14-0 at halftime and only 21-7 until the final minute of the third quarter — should help his team gain confidence.

The Mustangs’ morale should also improve this week, when they will be heavily favored to earn their first win against Bolsa Grande (Friday at OCC). The Matadors (1-1) were hammered by Estancia, 56-0, on Sept. 8 and ended a 17-game losing streak Thursday with a 27-21 win over Segerstrom.

“You can learn a lot from a loss, but we don’t want this season to become too educational,” Osso quipped.

Osso said suspending seven starters for the first quarter of Friday’s game was necessitated by a violation of team rules earlier Friday.

Among those sidelined was starting quarterback Cody Waldron, as well as the No. 2 signal caller, prompting the appearance of sophomore Brett Farthing under center for the first snap.

“[Farthing] was pretty wide-eyed, but I thought he did a good job of running our offense,” Osso said.

“I think winning as big as we’ve been winning [a combined 100-7 the first two games], our kids maybe lost a little sense of reality,” Estancia Coach Brian Barnes said. “Hopefully, they got a little taste of reality on Friday and we can get back to the grindstone.”

The Eagles play JSerra Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at OCC.

Barnes said his team’s disappointment over losing to the Coyotes was genuine and heartfelt.

“After we got beat last year, I think the kids felt bad and acted like they were sad, because the coaches were disappointed,” Barnes said. “But Friday, I saw kids were saddened that we lost. For me, that tells me things are changing since I got here and kids are buying into the program we’re trying to build. You could tell the kids don’t like the feeling of losing anymore.”