Newport Harbor Outlasts Trabuco Hills in First Home Game (2022)

Newport Beach – Davidson Field

Newport Beach – The Newport Harbor football team went down to the opponent’s last drive for the second straight week, but came away victorious yet again, as it beat Trabuco Hills 27-24 on Friday.

“The defense has been spectacular in this 4-1 start. They’ve won games for us. Last week against Capo Valley they were outstanding. Tonight, they bent a little bit, but they didn’t break,” Sailors coach Peter Lofthouse said

In finishing their non-league schedule 4-1 entering the bye week next week, the Sailors also defeated the Mustangs for the first time since 2010. In addition, the win also snaps a 4-game losing streak to the Mustangs as well (2011-13, 2021).

Both team’s offense couldn’t get much happening in the opening quarter, as both teams struggled to put points on the board. After Trabuco Hills punted on their opening drive, Newport Harbor got in range to attempt a 48-yard field goal, but it fell short.
The next offensive drive for both teams resulted in punts, but when the Mustangs got the ball back, they made the most of having the ball. The second play of the drive resulted in a 57-yard pickup from Will Burns finding Chris Padilla.

Two plays after the pickup, Taylor Bowie stuffed it in from 1 yard out to give Trabuco Hills their first score. That touchdown continued a streak of at least one touchdown scored in the first quarter for the Mustangs.

Newport Harbor didn’t let that rattle them, as they went right to work, eventually getting down to the opponent’s 20 at the conclusion of the first period. Two plays into the quarter, the Sailors found the endzone, as Colton Joseph found Payton Irving off a screen pass and in for a 21-yard touchdown.

Newport Harbor’s defense came up big on Trabuco Hills’ next drive, as Johnny Chaix picked off Burns in Sailor territory. The Sailors got all the way down to the 20, only to see a mishandled snap take them out of the redzone and force them to punt.

The Mustangs’ next drive saw faced with a fourth down situation in their own territory, where they went for it, but was stopped short of the mark. Newport Harbor made sure to make the opposing team pay for its mistake, as the fifth play of the drive saw Joseph hit Josiah Lamarque for a 13-yard touchdown pass, making the score 13-7 after the extra point hit the crossbar and was no good.

Trabuco Hills was faced with another fourth down situation in its own territory, but this time, they picked it up. Two plays later, the Mustangs got down to the Sailors’ 14 and three plays after it appeared that they had a big touchdown catch from Ryan Luce in the endzone.
But the referees ruled that Luce was out of bounds, as the Mustangs settled for a 28-yard field goal. Eventually, both teams went into halftime with the Sailors up 13-10.
After Newport Harbor went three and out, Trabuco Hills knew it needed to set the tone in the quarter, but saw Burns picked off on the third play of the drive by Jacob Carlon at midfield. Eventually, the Sailors cashed in on the interception, as Joseph punched it in from one yard out to give them the touchdown.

After the Mustangs’ punted, deep within the Sailors’ territory, Newport Harbor got a big play from Joseph, finding Jack Cereda for a 50-yard reception while dragging a pair of defenders who were latched onto him. Two plays after the reception, Joseph found near the goal line Kashton Henjum, who had a quiet 105 receiving yards on eight catches despite being double-teamed.

The next play saw Joseph find Lamarque for a 3-yard touchdown pass, boosting the lead to 27-10. With the third quarter having eventually come to an end and the Sailors eventually getting the ball back, the Mustangs needed to come up big.

That eventually was the case, as Newport Harbor punted into the endzone for a touchback. Burns eventually led his team down the field, as Bowie ran it in for a 4-yard score.

The Sailors’ next drive saw them chew up three minutes and 20 seconds of clock but punt the ball back to the Mustangs. Burns once again led his team down the field, which was capped off by Bowie’s third rushing touchdown of the night, cutting lead to 27-24.

“These guys [Trabuco Hills] have a great running game, but our defense has one of the best run defenses in the county. We were really just focused on getting that big push up front to not allow the outside to not to break some yards,” Irving said.

Trabuco Hills had planned to onside kick, but the kick traveled nowhere near the required number of yards needed. Fortunately for the Mustangs, they had all three of their time outs, and they forced the punt with 43 seconds left.

Eventually, Trabuco Hills ran out of time, and Newport Harbor celebrated a hard-fought victory.

“It was just our energy, making sure we kept all our guys up and playing because this game got hectic in the fourth quarter. As long as we kept our energy and our attitude up, we were able to win this game,” Lamarque said.

The Sailors (4-1) have a bye next week, but are back Friday September 30 when they open up Sunset League play at home against Los Alamitos at 7 p.m.