Barons stay perfect

NEWPORT BEACH - On any given play, the Newport Harbor High football team knew Kyle Middlebrooks could score in a matter of seconds.

The Fountain Valley running back burned the Sailors last year, scoring a game-winning 52-yard touchdown in the final 30 seconds.

This year, the Barons used him as a decoy and Newport Harbor forgot about the quarterback Thursday night.

Dominic Ragland did it all for Fountain Valley. The lefty scored twice on runs, recovered a fumble, and leaped and came away with the football to prevent the Sailors from recovering an onside-kick late as the Barons won the Sunset League road game, 37-32, and remained undefeated.

Middlebrooks led Fountain Valley (8-0, 3-0 in league) with 139 yards on 17 carries and he scored two touchdowns.

The senior lifting the Barons, ranked No. 6 in the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division poll, and breaking the back of Newport Harbor (4-4, 1-2) was Ragland. He rushed for 114 yards on 15 carries.

Midway through the fourth quarter, Ragland took the snap in shotgun and ran right when Middlebrooks went the opposite direction. The defense swarmed toward Middlebrooks, the player without the ball.

Ragland doesn’t have Middlebrooks’ 100-meter type speed of 10.57 seconds, but he showed his elusiveness. Ragland’s 46-yard touchdown put the Barons ahead, 35-18, proving to be the eventual game-winning touchdown.

“Every single team is going to focus on Kyle. He’s the best back in the state,” Ragland said. “We thought that we could take advantage with misdirection and using Kyle as a decoy.

“We’ve actually played here three years in a row and it seems to feel like our home field.”

In the past two games against Newport Harbor at Davidson Field, Fountain Valley has prevailed. The Barons are looking to repeat as league champs, but without sharing it with four others teams, which happened last year.

The Sailors’ league title hopes don’t look good after dropping back-to-back games. They were without UC Berkeley-bound senior Cecil Whiteside.

The inside linebacker missed the game with a right elbow injury. Coach Jeff Brinkley didn’t want to talk about Whiteside, but he sure could’ve helped Newport Harbor’s defense.

While Whiteside was on the sideline, wearing his jersey over a hooded sweatshirt instead of shoulder pads, the defense gave up big plays.

Fountain Valley scored on runs of 67, 46 and 38 yards, and on a 30-yard pass.

Going into the fourth quarter, Newport Harbor trailed by a field goal, instead of seven points, the second safety against the Barons and a 51-yard screen pass going for a touchdown helped the Sailors stay close.

Austin Rios’ screen pass to Cedric Whitaker cut the deficit to 21-18 in the third. After Rios threw his second TD of the game, the score quickly changed in favor of the Barons.

Seven seconds into the final quarter, Middlebrooks bolted again. He ran up the middle for a 38-yard touchdown.

“He’s going to get one or two big runs against everybody,” said Brinkley of Middlebrooks, whose first monster run was the 67-yard touchdown giving Fountain Valley a 21-7 lead early in the second quarter. “You just can’t let him do it all night.”

When Middlebrooks wasn’t breaking off big runs, Ragland was moving the chains for Fountain Valley.

The first of Ragland’s touchdowns was set up by the second fumble by Whitaker in the opening quarter. Take away the two fumbles and Newport Harbor might be in prime shape, but they led to the Barons’ first two touchdowns.

Fountain Valley took a 14-0 lead without having to record a first down until five seconds into the second quarter. The Barons didn’t have to go far to score.

The first touchdown was a result of some trickery. Before running a play after taking over on the Sailors’ 30-yard line with 4:56 on the clock, the Barons called a timeout. The move panned out.

On first down, Ragland handed the ball to Middlebrooks, who gave it to wide receiver Ryan Steadman on a reverse. The play didn’t end there.

With Steadman running to his right, he hit a wide-open Justin Browley for a 30-yard touchdown pass. Nine seconds from recovering a fumble, Fountain Valley struck first.

Newport Harbor gave up the ball again 54 seconds later on its own 24.

After a Middlebrooks run matching the No. 7 on his jersey, Ragland decided to run on his own on the following play. Ragland faked the handoff to Middlebrooks, and with the defense biting, the senior went left for a 17-yard touchdown.

“If we can play hard the next two weeks, then we got a chance [for the playoffs],” Brinkley said.

Fountain Valley 37, Newport Harbor 32

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Fountain Valley 14-7-0-16--37

Newport Harbor 7-2-9-14--32

FIRST QUARTER

FV – Browley 30 pass from Steadman (Huynen kick), 4:47.

FV – Ragland 17 run (Huynen kick), 3:02.

NH – Andrews 1 run (Freiberg kick), 1:23.

SECOND QUARTER

FV – Middlebrooks 67 run (Huynen kick), 11:44.

NH – Punter kicks ball out of end zone for safety, 0:20.

THIRD QUARTER

NH – Punter pushes ball out of end zone for safety, 4:28.

NH – Whitaker 51 pass from Rios (Freiberg kick), 4:06.

FOURTH QUARTER

FV – Middlebrooks 38 run (Huynen kick), 11:53.

FV – Ragland 46 run (Huynen kick), 6:32.

NH – Norton 5 pass from Rios (Freiberg kick), 3:55.

FV – Quarterback is sacked in the end zone for a safety, 1:40.

NH – Andrews 7 run (Freiberg kick), 1:00.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

FV – Middlebrooks, 17-139, 2 TD; Ragland, 15-114, 2 TDs.

NH – Whitaker, 18-90; Andrews, 4-14, 2 TDs; Rios, 7-minus 27.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

FV – Ragland, 10-18-1, 102; Steadman, 1-1-0, 30, 1 TD.

NH – Rios, 14-26-0, 168, 2 TDs.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

FV – Steadman, 5-61; Browley, 2-38, 1 TD; Middlebrooks, 4-33.

NH – Norton, 7-66, 1 TD; Whitaker, 1-51, 1 TD; Truxton, 2-29; Yokoyama, 3-13; Andrews, 1-9.