Sailors coast in opener

Out of all of Jeff Brinkley’s season openers as Newport Harbor High’s football coach, Thursday’s will go down as one of the easier ones.

The Sailors kicked off Brinkley’s 30th season in charge with an emphatic 44-0 win against Rialto Eisenhower at Davidson Field. The margin of victory wasn’t the most lopsided for an opener under Brinkley’s watch, but it was darn impressive.

By halftime, it was over. The Sailors scored all of their points, thanks to great special teams play, a stifling defense, and a strong running game in the first half. Brinkley improved to 23-6-1 in openers, the latest one turned out to be laugher.

The opposing coach, Mike Clark, told Brinkley afterward, “Hopefully we can give you guys a better game next year.” Brinkley shook his hand and he understood where Clark’s Eagles (0-2) are at this early stage in the season.

“They’re a young group,” Brinkley said of the Eagles. “[Clark is] trying to get them going in a more positive direction than they were probably last year, [when they went 4-6]. They start a lot of sophomores and juniors, so it’s tough sometimes with young guys.”

The inexperienced showed in all facets of the game and Newport Harbor took advantage of the CIF Southern Section Inland Division program, considered Division 6.

The 62-year-old Brinkley, who has spent almost half of his life at Newport Harbor, saw Jack Rapillo return two punts for touchdowns in the opening quarter, one for 58 yards and another for 29 yards. Tom Phillips also blocked a punt in the end zone, resulting in a safety in the second quarter.

Newport Harbor closed out the first half with its fourth rushing touchdown. Tailback Cole Kinder took a toss to the left and then broke up field for a 52-yard touchdown. Kinder, who also rushed for a seven-yard score in the second quarter, finished with eight carries for 85 yards.

The other first-half scores by the Sailors came on fullback Jamie McNeil’s one-yard run and Gage Roberson’s three-yard run. Newport Harbor’s backfield almost wound up finding the end zone on almost half of its nine first-half carries.

The defense stymied the Eagles, who suffered their second blowout loss in as many weeks. Roberson, playing linebacker, picked off a pass in the second quarter. When quarterback Ian Morales, who completed six of 18 passes for 52 yards and two interceptions, couldn’t get a pass off, it was because of Newport Harbor’s front seven. Michael Jarboe, Roberson, Kobe Benter and Elliott Frye each sacked Morales once in the first half.

Through the first two quarters, Eisenhower managed only 18 passing yards and seven rushing yards. The Sailors allowed two first downs in the first half.

Things got so ugly that the two coaches agreed to a running clock late in the second quarter. The only thing that stopped the Sailors in the second half was that the clock kept going.

Time ran out fast on Newport Harbor, and for quarterback Michael Bonds. Brinkley didn’t bring Bonds back for the second half.

The junior completed 10 of 12 passes for 101 yards, and Bonds was perfect on his first seven attempts. Six of those came on the game’s opening drive, hitting Rapillo, a wideout, on three passes for 34 yards, Benter, a tight end, twice for 19 yards, and receiver Reed Rutter once for 12 yards.

The Sailors drove 69 yards in 10 plays, taking a little more than four minutes to score. They did suffer a blow during the drive. On the first play from scrimmage, Brinkley said senior right guard Arthur Guillen tweaked a knee. Matthew Torres replaced Guillen, and the way Newport Harbor played, it wouldn’t need Guillen against Eisenhower.

“Obviously it wasn’t our level of competition,” said Rapillo, knowing the next three games for the Sailors will be a challenge, playing nonleague contests against CIF Southern Section ranked opponents, the first at Pico Rivera El Rancho (No. 10 in Southeast Division) next week. “Next week hopefully it will be better competition.”

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Newport Harbor 44, Eisenhower 0

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Eisenhower 0 – 0 – 0 – 0 — 0

Newport 21 – 23 – 0 – 0 — 44

FIRST QUARTER

NH – McNeil 1 run (Blake kick), 7:54.

NH – Rapillo 58 punt return (Blake kick), 5:55.

NH – Rapillo 29 punt return (Blake kick), :07.

SECOND QUARTER

NH – Roberson 3 run (Blake kick), 10:02.

NH – Kinder 7 run (Blake kick), 5:20.

NH – Phillips blocked punt and ball went out of the end zone for a safety (Blake kick), 3:33.

NH – Kinder 52 run (Blake kick), 3:16.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

E – Subero, 16-81.

NH – Kinder, 8-85, 2 TDs.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

E – Morales, 6-18-2, 52.

NH – Bonds, 10-12-0, 101.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

E – Howard, 4-29.

NH – Rapillo, 4-34.