| 1Q | 2Q | 3Q | 4Q | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tesoro High School | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 17 |
| Newport Harbor | 0 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 14 |
Davidson Field (home opener)
The Newport Harbor football team saved its best quarter for last week, as they rallied from a 14-0 deficit in the fourth quarter to beat Tesoro 17-14 on Thursday at Davidson Field.
“Our defense for the first half shut them out and then unfortunately, we had a couple mistakes that led to some touchdowns, but in the fourth quarter, they really clamped down and were able to get their offense off the field really quickly,” Sailors head coach Peter Lofthouse said.
The first half of the game featured scoring from neither team as both teams’ defense came up with stops to prevent the other team from scoring. For the Titans, they forced two turnovers with one coming with the Sailors driving in the second quarter.
The first score didn’t come until over halfway through the third quarter when Tesoro’s Travis Wood, an Air Force commit, scored on a fourth-down play on the Sailors’ one yard line in wildcat formation. Wood finished with 175 rushing yards on 34 carries and two touchdowns.
Much like the first game of the season loss to St. Paul, the Sailors’ struggled to contain the opposing team’s run game. Wood’s second touchdown came from on a four-yard score and suddenly, the Titans were up 14-0.
Newport didn’t score until the 7:54 mark of the fourth quarter when quarterback Jaden O’Neal found Josiah Lamarque for a 54-yard catch and score. After the Sailors’ defense got the stop, it was time for their offense to go to work again.
O’Neal hooked up with Jordan Anderson for a 49-yard gain and on the play after, he hit Lamarque with a 28-yard touchdown catch, tying the game at 14-14.
“I think all of our kids were swarming to the ball pretty well, and then they had those two game-breaking plays by their kids and that kind of blew it open. We were getting to the ball and doing really well for quite awhile, but you can only hold them down for so long,” Titans coach Matt Poston said.
It seemed the Tesoro offense had woken up as Wood was running the ball effectively and quarterback Cash O’Byrne threw the ball precisely to his receivers. The Titans got inside the Sailors’ 40 and were chewing up the clock, which also saw the Sailors start burning their time outs.
With two-and-a-half minutes left, Tesoro made a huge gamble going for it on fourth down when they needed nine yards since kicking a 50+ yard field goal would’ve been out of the question. But O’Byrne’s pass was broken up and the Sailors took over on their own 35.
O’Neal led Newport Harbor to a good-ahead winning drive after making smart decisions when throwing the ball. Eventually, the Sailors booted in a 36-yard field goal field from Jon Richardson.
“We had a really sloppy first half, but we stood strong, we rallied in the locker room and just went from there and I think it’s going to be a really big stepping stone for us the rest of the season,” Lamarque said.
Tesoro did get two chances to either tie or take the lead, but its hail Mary fell well short, as the Newport Harbor students stormed the field to celebrate with the team.
“I feel like in the first half we weren’t really executing, but once we went into the second half, we started executing and having faith overall,” O’Neal, who got his first win as a quarterback, said.
Newport Harbor (1-1) will need to execute early and often tonight vs. the talented and tradition-rich La Habra.