Newport Harbor Beats Huntington Beach, Both Teams Await Playoff Fate

Huntington Beach – The Newport Harbor football team closed out its regular season on a strong note, as it defeated Huntington Beach 24-6 on Friday at Cap Sheue Field. The Sailors wasted no time as Joseph used his arms and legs to get first downs, as one of the plays he had was a 35-yard run. Eventually, he found Kashton Henjum for a 20-yard touchdown pass to get Newport Harbor on the board first.

After the Oilers were forced to punt, things began to go awry, as their punt was blocked by Carson de Avila and returned to the Oilers’ 1-yard line. Eventually, the Sailors scored off a 1-yard touchdown run off a direct snap to #50 Alexe Pappageorge.

Huntington Beach struggled offensively as they couldn’t get into the redzone once in the first half. Newport Harbor also had its fair share of struggles offensively, having accumulated lots of penalties.

“Penalties killed us, but without those penalties, we were rolling. A few little things didn’t click, but we’ll be firing,” Joseph said.

The Sailors, on their last drive of the second quarter with six seconds remaining, tried to get another score, but Joseph got sacked as time expired. However, it was determined that Newport Harbor called timeout with one second remaining immediately after the sack, which kept the quarter going.

The Sailors lined up for a 45-yard field goal and despite the ball hitting the crossbar, it took a friendly bounce and went in.

“We started slow, but we battled, and I thought our kids were relentless and they played hard,” Oilers coach Brett Brown said.

The Oilers’ offensive woes continued on their opening drive, as they fumbled on what could’ve been a first down, as Robby Crowell knocked the ball out and De Avila recovered. Eight plays later, the Sailors cashed in on the fumble, as Joseph found Josiah Lamarque on a 10-yard touchdown.

Things went from bad to worse for Huntington Beach as on their sixth play of the drive, quarterback Daunte Bell appeared to hurt his ankle while scrambling to keep the play alive on third down. Though Brown said Bell’s injury was minor and he could’ve gone back in.

On fourth down, Vaughn Popp checked in at quarterback and threw the ball to a wide-open receiver, but dropped it, which forced a turnover on downs.
Popp eventually redeemed himself, as with less than five minutes remaining, he navigated a four-play, 80-yard drive which was capped off by a 39-yard touchdown catch and run from Nick Gentilella. The Oilers went for an onside kick after their two-point conversion was unsuccessful and recovered the kick to give them a chance at a possible miracle.

Huntington Beach got all the way down to the way down to the Sailors’ 29, but turned it over on downs, as Newport Harbor eventually drained the clock and celebrated winning its last regular season game.

“Defense had to come up big. We really improved from last week, just eliminated the big plays, got pressure on the quarterback, our DBs stepped up big, defense got to the ball,” De Avila said. “It’s just a great team win. Defense played great, still can improve though.”

Both teams will now await to see where they will be at in terms of the CIF-SS playoffs on Sunday at 10 a.m.