| 1Q | 2Q | 3Q | 4Q | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Newport Harbor | 0 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 42 |
| Temecula Valley | 14 | 14 | 7 | 0 | 35 |
Incredible! Amazing!! Improbable. Pick your adjective, use them all, add any others you can think of. Each of them applies. Go ahead and toss in a few extra exclamation points too.
The 2021 Newport Harbor football team is a CIF champion. After salvaging a 3-7 regular season with four straight playoff wins, the Sailors earned the Southern Section Division-6 title in Saturday night’s thrilling, come-from-behind 42-35 victory at Temecula Valley.
And with the championship plaque ready to hang, the season is extended to the CIF State Bowl Championship series with the Sailors now scheduled to take on Aquinas High in San Bernardino next Friday night, December 3rd, in the State Division 3-AA semifinals.
“It’s a great feeling. From where we started when I first got here, from 3-6-1 in 2018, to come full circle,” beamed Head Coach Peter Lofthouse during the exhaustive post-game celebration. “We got so close in 2019 and came up short at the CIF semifinals, and now here in 2021, to win a CIF championship, it’s just a great feeling.”
It’s the fourth CIF football championship for Harbor, the first since 2005, and aligns them with the boys’ water polo team as 2021 fall sports CIF title winners.
Mirroring the season as a whole, the Sailors (7-7) took its lumps early. Temecula Valley (10-4) scored touchdowns on its first four possessions, rolling up a 21-nothing lead with barely three minutes gone in the second quarter before Harbor got on the scoreboard. Senior quarterback AJ Guitron-Moore hit junior Kashton Henjum for a 15-yard touchdown to make it 21-7. It was the first hint of much more ahead.
After the Golden Bears stretched the lead back to three touchdowns on a 68-yard scoring pass from Zach Zella to Samuel Gbatu to make it 28-7, Guitron-Moore guided an 8-play drive to the end zone. His 35-yard touchdown pass to sophomore Josiah Lamarque made it 28-14 at half.
Down two scores, the Sailors quickly grabbed momentum in the second half, scoring on a spectacular 52-yard pass from Guitron-Moore to Henjum on the fourth play of the third quarter to make it 28-21. On its next possession, the Sailors marched 57 yards on eight plays to tie the game as sophomore Henry Slater scored on a 1-yard touchdown run to make it 28-all.
“We knew we were going to get a great shot from them early. Once we were able to survive that, and overcome some early mistakes, we were able to gather momentum,” Lofthouse said. “As we gained momentum, they started gassing and we were able to lean on them in the second half.”
The Sailors defense leaned hard in the second half, holding the Golden Bears scoreless in the third quarter while preventing a potential go-ahead touchdown with a tenacious goal line stand. With a first and goal from the ten yard line, the defense yielded nine yards on three short run plays by the quarterback Zella. On 4th & goal from the one, a swarm of Sailors led by senior Nate Peters, juniors Trace Werner, Carson de Avila, with sophomores Makai Sagaio and Jacob Carlon and stuffed TV runningback Lucas Valencia short of the end zone as Harbor took over on downs.
“We’ve seen adversity. We’ve seen good teams, we’ve been down big, we just had the experience to go and get it,” said Simon after the game. “We were prepared.”
Still, the adversity did not subside. The fourth quarter was as much a microcosm of the Sailors season as was the entire championship game. The Golden Bears re-took the lead at 35-28 when Zella found Dominic Paris on a 12-yard scoring pass, Zella’s third touchdown toss of the night. He also ran for two scores.
Trailing by seven points, the Harbor offense wasted no time evening the score when Guitron-Moore completed three straight passes on the next possession, including a 50-yard strike to Henjum sprinting all alone to the end zone on a post pattern. 35-all with 9:18 remaining on the clock.
After forcing a TV punt on its next possession, Harbor leaned on the run game with junior Hayden Farley and sophomore Henry Slater methodically eating up the clock in mid-range bursts of yardage toward the goal line. When Slater scored on a 2nd & goal touchdown run from the four, the Sailors had its first lead of the night at 42-35 with just over three minutes remaining on the clock.
The Golden Bears’ final possession for a potential tying score was a hard-fought struggle for every yard of turf. Defenders Simon and fellow senior Nate Peters contributed a key sack and TV responded by converting on a 4th down and three pass completion. Unyielding over ten plays on the drive, the final spike was sophomore safety McKay Ketchum’s interception of a Zella pass over the middle with 1:41 to play. The final few plays of the championship game were a Harbor exercise in victory formation before students, alumni, coaches, and spectators all rushed the field.
“It’s just something you dream of,” Guitron-Moore reflected. “It’s the most amazing thing in life.”
The quarterback who made his first varsity start in the 6th game of his senior season finished the title game hitting 16 of 22 passes for 268 yards and three touchdowns. Henjum had 11 receptions for 159 yards and two TD’s; Lamrque had the 35-yard touchdown catch and an 80-yard punt return for a would-be score called back on a penalty. Farley led the Sailors in rushing with 79 yards on 14 carries. Slater scored two touchdowns on the ground. Sophomore Jon Richardson was a perfect six for six on extra point tries.
“It’s a great feeling not only for the players and the coaching staff,” Lofthouse added, “but also for the program, the school, and the community as a whole. I’m very proud of everybody.”
Among the many other adjectives beyond wonderful, exciting, and implausible, perhaps the most appropriate to describe the 2021 Newport Harbor championship season is: Everlasting.
And it ain’t over yet.
– Matt Morrison
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