Fountain Valley roughs up Newport Harbor, keeps Sailors winless in football

Amid all the punches thrown and all the shoving on the football field at Newport Harbor High on Friday, Fountain Valley won the fight that counted.

The Barons defeated the Sailors 35-7 at Davidson Field, moving into a three-way tie for second place in the Sunset League.

The Barons, who are 6-2 overall and ranked No. 9 in CIF Southern Section Division 6, share second place at 2-1 with Edison and Huntington Beach. Fountain Valley needed to win to stay in contention for a league title and playoff berth.

Quarterback Nick Welch led Fountain Valley. He finished with 165 passing yards and 145 rushing yards, and threw for a touchdown and rushed for one.

Fountain Valley coach Jimmy Nolan recognizes how his team relies heavily on Welch’s performances.

“We don’t feel like we lost to two opponents, we feel like we lost to ourselves twice,” Nolan said. “If you ask Nick Welch, he [would] say the losses were on him, that he was trying to do too much. I think he tries too much because the guy is such a competitor, so you really can’t stop him from doing that, but at the same time, he is learning from his mistakes. We will go as far as he goes.”

At 0-8 overall, Newport Harbor isn’t going anywhere.

Newport Harbor’s season is almost like the one Fountain Valley experienced last year in Nolan’s debut at the school. The Barons won one game a year ago.

The last time the Sailors went winless in a season was in 1945.

Newport Harbor’s lone score came in the third quarter. Junior quarterback Sam Barela connected with senior receiver Jake Bashore for a 13-yard touchdown.

Fountain Valley running back Benn Vallier helped his team put the game out of reach late in the third quarter on his third one-yard touchdown run.

With less than two minutes left in the game, Welch threw a 61-yard pass to junior wide receiver Kishaun Sykes (six catches for 106 yards and a touchdown). Instead of trying to run out the clock, Fountain Valley continued to look for the end zone, until a Newport Harbor defender tackled a defenseless receiver from the back, and then chaos erupted.

“From what I saw, [Newport Harbor’s] kid was upset, and, in my opinion, it was a premeditated action,” Nolan said about the altercation toward the end of the game. “He immediately grabbed my kid’s helmet, took it off, got on top of him, and threw about five to six punches to his face.”

Players and coaches flooded the field. The officials decided to call the game with 1:14 to go.

Fountain Valley moves on to next week’s Battle for the Bell rivalry with two-time defending league champion Edison at Orange Coast College. The meeting will mark the 50th between the two schools.

The Barons have lost 12 in a row to the Chargers.

“Make no mistake, we know [Edison] is a better team, and so is Los Alamitos,” said Nolan, whose team finds itself a game back of first-place Los Alamitos with two remaining in league. “We know that we’re just going to do everything we can under our own control and hopefully not shoot ourselves in the foot, because those two teams are a lot better than any other team we’ve played this year.”

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Fountain Valley 35, Newport Harbor 7

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Fountain Valley 0 – 21 – 7 – 7 — 35

Newport Harbor 0 – 0 – 7 – 0 — 7

SECOND QUARTER

FV – Vallier 1 run (Tellez kick), 11:57.

FV – Vallier 1 run (Tellez kick), 8:39.

FV – Sykes 32 pass from Welch (Tellez kick), 1:19.

THIRD QUARTER

NH – Bashore 13 pass from Barela (Schroeder kick), 11:19.

FV – Vallier 1 run (Tellez kick), 2:48.

FOURTH QUARTER

FV – Welch 12 run (Tellez kick), 9:35.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

FV – Welch, 17-145, 1 TD.

NH – Andrews, 1-20.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

FV – Welch, 13-19-0, 165, 1 TD.

NH – Barela, 21-35-2, 128, 1 TD.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

FV – Sykes, 6-106, 1 TD.

NH – Bashore, 5-38, 1 TD.

JUAN CARLOS GONZALEZ is a contributor to Times Community News: Follow him on Twitter: @JGonzalezSports