Sailors fall to Mira Costa

After playing three straight games on the road, Newport Harbor High returned to Davidson Field on Friday. The homecoming didn’t help much.

The Sailors lost big for the third straight time, suffering a 35-14 setback to Manhattan Beach Mira Costa. Newport Harbor closed out nonleague play in bad shape, dropping its last three by a combined 62 points.

Next week the Sailors open Sunset League play against Fountain Valley. The contest is at Davidson Field and it will mark Newport Harbor’s last one on campus this season, as the stadium will undergo $8.5-million renovations later this month.

The Sailors (2-3) might need to overhaul some things on the field. They haven’t performed well, and facing CIF Southern Section-ranked teams the past three games might have something to do with the lack of success.

“I’ll take responsibility,” Newport Harbor Coach Jeff Brinkley said of the losing. “It’s like a corporation, I’m the head guy and I need to do a better job of getting them ready. We did not play very well in any area of the game tonight, offense, defense, special teams, all [were] bad.”

Mira Costa, ranked No. 2 in the Western Division, improved to 5-0, already surpassing last year’s win total by two games. Quarterback David Arredondo has keyed the Mustangs’ first 5-0 start in 10 years.

Arredondo threw for four touchdowns, finishing 13 of 24 for 167 yards. The junior’s completions went to seven different targets.

The Mustangs’ lone touchdown on the ground came by the way of tailback Omar Morrison. Eleven seconds after Newport Harbor quarterback Michael Bonds’ second touchdown pass, a 31-yarder to Cole Kinder, cut Mira Costa’s lead to 28-14 early in the fourth quarter, Morrison put the game away. Morrison ripped a 65-yard touchdown run, helping extend Mira Costa’s lead to 21 points.

Morrison finished with 14 carries for 140 yards, becoming the fourth player to top 100 yards against Newport Harbor during the Sailors’ skid. Newport Harbor goes up against another hot team, Fountain Valley (3-2), which has won three in a row.

“We’ll just prepare the way we always do, the best we can, and hopefully we can get better next week,” said Brinkley, whose best player was Kinder, who rushed 17 times for 81 yards, including a 65-yard run that set up the Sailors’ first touchdown, a 20-yard hookup between Bonds and wideout Reed Rutter late in the third quarter. “If we don’t [get better], it will be a long league.”

It turned out to be long first half for Newport Harbor, which only produced four first downs in the first 24 minutes.

The first one came 89 seconds into the game. Newport Harbor went for it on fourth-and-inches from its 28. A sneak for two yards by Bonds moved the chains. The drive stalled near midfield and the Mustangs took over on their 43. They went 57 yards in four plays, two pass plays accounted for a majority of the yards.

Arredondo hit Morrison for a 22-yard gain on first down, and three plays later, Arredondo found Ta’utino Sione for a 23-yard touchdown. Sione did most of the work, breaking a tackle near the 10-yard line before going down the sideline for the score with 5:10 left in the first quarter.

Newport Harbor faced another fourth-and-short situation in the opening quarter, but it opted to punt. The Sailors, who were on the opponent’s 41, only needed a yard to keep the drive alive.

A similar fourth-and-one situation arose for Newport Harbor on its 47 early in the second quarter, and it brought out Riley Blake. The punter was busy in the first half, punting five times.

Mira Costa wound up scoring after Blake’s third and fourth punts. The pass play worked for the Mustangs. Jemal Williams made a spectacular one-handed grab in the back of the end zone, resulting in an 11-yard touchdown midway through the second quarter. Then with 66 seconds left in the first half, Arredondo threw another 11-yard touchdown pass, this one to Chris Brown on a screen pass.

Arredondo hit seven different receivers with passes, finishing the first half eight of 10 for 127 yards and three touchdowns. He proved to be the difference in the Mustangs’ 12th matchup against Newport Harbor in as many years.

Last year, Arredondo didn’t play the Sailors, who won at Mira Costa, 41-22. He was the junior varsity signal caller back then.

“We love playing them. Coach Brinkley and his staff have so much class,” said Mira Costa Coach Don Morrow, whose program has evened the series with Newport Harbor at 6-6. “Some years we’ve gotten them, and … last year was an example of them getting us. It’s kind of gone back and forth.”

Nonleague

Mira Costa 35, Newport Harbor 14

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Mira Costa 7 – 14 – 7 – 7 — 35

Newport Harbor 0 – 0 – 7 – 7 — 14

FIRST QUARTER

MC – Sione 23 pass from Arredondo (Lipps kick), 5:10.

SECOND QUARTER

MC – Williams 11 pass from Arredondo (Lipps kick), 6:18.

MC – Brown 11 pass from Arredondo (Lipps kick), 1:06.

THIRD QUARTER

MC – Sione 19 pass from Arredondo (Lipps kick), 8:11.

NH – Rutter 20 pass from Bonds (Blake kick), 3:14.

FOURTH QUARTER

NH – Kinder 31 pass from Bonds (Blake kick), 11:09.

MC – Morrison 65 (Lipps kick), 10:56.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

MC – Morrison, 14-140, 1 TD.

NH – Kinder, 17-81.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

MC – Arredondo, 13-24-0, 167, 4 TDs.

NH – Bonds, 13-20-1, 119, 2 TDs.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

MC – Sione, 3-49, 2 TDs.

NH – Kinder, 5-66, 1 TD.