Sailors step up, win

WESTMINSTER — A week after Newport Harbor High failed to score in a football game for the first time in three years, the Sailors ended their scoring drought in a huge way against Marina. Teams tend to find success against the Vikings in Sunset League play.

The Sailors kept their CIF Southern Section West Valley Division playoff hopes alive with a 60-35 rout of Marina at Westminster High on Friday.

Beating Marina is one thing for Newport Harbor, which handed the Vikings their 55th straight loss in league. Beating Edison next week will be another thing for the Sailors.

First-place Edison comes to Newport Harbor looking to close out the regular season with an undefeated league title. The Sailors last beat the Chargers 36 years ago.

Newport Harbor (4-5, 2-2 in league) must stun Edison to have a chance at earning the league’s third-and-final guaranteed postseason berth. Even if the Sailors win, there are no guarantees. They will need Marina to win its first league game in 11 years by upsetting Los Alamitos next week.

Edison (4-0 in league) and second-place Fountain Valley (3-1), which holds the head-to-head tiebreaker against the two third-place teams, Los Alamitos (2-2) and Newport Harbor, have clinched the league’s first two spots.

If Newport Harbor cannot get the league’s No. 3 playoff entry, the West Valley Division has two at-large berths. A win against Edison, ranked No. 6 in the West Valley Division, can only bolster the Sailors’ chances of receiving a playoff entry.

“[That] would be a huge feather in our cap,” Newport Harbor Coach Jeff Brinkley said. “That’s what we’ve talked about as a staff, that if we could somehow find a way and pull one off next week and knock off the No. 6 team, then it looks good for you in terms of the at-large.

“It would take a lot of pieces to fall into place [for us to make the playoffs for the 24th time during my 30 years in charge of the Sailors], after [Los Alamitos beat Huntington Beach, 56-10] on [Thursday] night. [That] was really a big game. We’ll just go play Edison to the best of our ability and try to win a game. We can’t control any of the other stuff.”

The Sailors still have an outside shot to make the playoffs. Cole Kinder, Michael Bonds, Reed Rutter and Roger Sanborn helped Newport Harbor stay in the playoff picture.

Kinder rushed 31 times for 284 yards and three touchdowns. He also returned a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown.

Bonds threw three first-half touchdowns, two of them went to wide receiver Reed Rutter, who finished with six catches for 142 yards.

Sanborn scored twice in the second half, returning a kickoff 95 yards and ripping a 70-yard run.

The 60 points are the most the Sailors have posted since they beat Woodbridge, 63-20, in 2004. They bounced back after Los Alamitos shut the Sailors out, 49-0, last week.

With a little more than three minutes in against Marina (1-8, 0-4), the Sailors struck. They came out with a balanced attack, going 80 yards in 10 plays. The Sailors found the end zone on a third-and-15 pass, as Bonds found a wide-open Rutter for a 17-yard score.

Bonds threw another first-quarter touchdown. After running Kinder on six of the first seven plays on the Sailors’ second drive, Bonds completed an 18-yard touchdown pass to Vinnie Bartolone. At the 3:08 mark, Newport Harbor led, 14-0, its biggest lead since the second game of the season at Pico Rivera El Rancho.

The Sailors wound up winning that nonleague affair against El Rancho, 33-21, on Sept. 11. They haven’t won much since, just twice, but both triumphs have come in league and on the road.

“It’s great to see these guys rise up with a lot of missing pieces,” Brinkley said.

The Sailors responded after Marina cut the deficit in half early in the second quarter. Tailback Cooper Malerstein, who finished with 20 carries for 153 yards and two touchdowns, rushed for a two-yard touchdown that made it a 14-7 game.

Newport Harbor went back up by two scores midway through the second quarter. Bonds’ third touchdown went to a familiar wideout. Rutter hauled in a pass near the sideline and then extended the ball over the goal line for a 15-yard touchdown.

Right before halftime, Newport Harbor scored again. The offense had to start on its nine because of a personal foul penalty, one of 10 first-half penalties committed by Newport Harbor.

With 2:58 to go in the first half, the Sailors went 91 yards in eight plays. Bonds and Rutter hooked up for consecutive big plays. The first was a 20-yard pass to a wide-open Rutter and the next was a 32-yard strike into double coverage that Rutter caught in stride, setting up the Sailors inside the opponent’s 10-yard line.

The next two plays featured Kinder, who finished the drive with a two-yard touchdown run. The carry marked Kinder’s 23rd in the first half, giving him 126 yards.

The Sailors took a 28-7 lead with 37 seconds remaining before halftime. This one was over by the break, and now the Sailors hope their season isn’t over come next week.

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Newport Harbor 60, Marina 35

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Newport Harbor 14 – 14 – 13 – 19 — 60

Marina 0 – 7 – 14 – 7 — 28

FIRST QUARTER

NH – Rutter 17 pass from Bonds (Blake kick), 8:59.

NH – Bartolone 18 pass from Bonds (Blake kick), 3:08.

SECOND QUARTER

M – Malerstein 2 run (Keidel kick), 10:33.

NH – Rutter 15 pass from Bonds (Blake kick), 6:15.

NH – Kinder 2 run (Blake kick), :37.

THIRD QUARTER

NH – Kinder 8 run (Blake kick), 8:22.

M – De La Torre 1 run (Keidel kick), 3:33.

M – Holmes 40 pass from De La Torre (Keidel kick), 1:18.

NH – Sanborn 95 kickoff return (run failed), 1:03.

FOURTH QUARTER

NH – Kinder 35 run (kick failed), 10:53.

M – Malerstein 73 run (Keidel kick), 7:22.

NH – Kinder 95 kickoff return (kick failed), 7:07.

NH – Sanborn 70 run (Blake kick), 3:07.

M – Vasquez 1 run (Keidel kick), :41.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

NH – Kinder, 31-284, 3 TDs.

M – Malerstein, 20-153, 2 TDs.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

NH – Bonds, 11-15-0, 195, 3 TDs.

M – De La Torre, 13-22-0, 123, 1 TD.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

NH – Rutter, 6-142, 2 TDs.

M – Holmes, 6-83, 1 TD.