Sailors Roll HB on Homecoming/Senior Night (59-21)

Newport Beach (Davidson Field).

A nice recap, below, from local media Sunset Rewind.

Senior Night. Homecoming. The Newport Harbor football team did not disappoint the 3,000 fans that showed up on Friday night at Davidson Field by getting back into the win column with a dominant 59-21 win over the Oilers of Huntington Beach.

The game was also significant as it makes a 1-0 league start.

In snapping their two-game losing streak, the Sailors remained undefeated at home this season while the Oilers are still in search of their first road win of the season.

“I was really proud of Jaden O’Neal had a really good first half, driving us down the field multiple times, putting up a lot of points and scores and it was great to see Bode [Stefano] get in the third quarter and have an opportunity to get multiple drives and put two touchdowns on the board too,” Sailors coach Peter Lofthouse said.

Newport Harbor only needed one play to get on the board, as Jagger Blauwkamp found a big hole and eventually saw paydirt for 62-yard touchdown run. The Oilers answered right back as it only took them three plays as Brady Edmunds found Tyler Young for a 55-yard catch and score touchdown to tie the game up.

After Blauwkamp took a 16-yard screen in for the score, Jaden O’Neal continued his strong start to the game, as he avoided taking a sack and found Josiah Lamarque for a 30-yard touchdown in the endzone. Knowing Huntington Beach couldn’t fall behind three scores, Edmunds found Hunter Gray who stayed on his feet after tight roping eventually rumbling his way in for the touchdown.

But that was the only scoring the Oilers could muster up, as they were shutout through three quarters as the Sailors’ defense brought pressure the entire night to Edmunds, who threw for three interceptions in this game. Coming into this game, Edmunds only had two interceptions and Newport Harbor as a team had one interception.
“That was something we were really talking about during the bye week was trying to clean up some of our assignment and alignment stuff in the secondary, talked about taking advantage of the opportunities in the back half. Film study goes a lot into that and expecting what could happen and that they did and they were able to pounce on them,” Lofthouse said.

While the Sailors’ defense locked up the Oilers for most of the night, the offense kept piling on points as O’Neal finished the first half with five passing touchdowns. Even O’Neal’s backup Bode Stefano was in a scoring mood as he found Anderson and Tyler Showalter in the third and fourth quarter respectfully.

With a running clock in the fourth quarter, Huntington Beach had to act fast to prevent getting shut out in the second half. Having taken out most of the starters, backup quarterback Zain Bahkta broke the Oilers’ second half shutout with a 17-yard catch and run touchdown to Micha Riola.

But it was far from enough, as Newport Harbor earned the win, snapping its two-game losing streak and sending every Sailors fan home with a smile it their face.

Next up for Newport Harbor (3-3, 1-0) a road matchup against Los Alamitos next Friday at Westminster High School at 7 p.m. For Huntington Beach (3-3, 0-1), it returns to action next Friday when it plays Edison at Cap Sheue Field where the Chargers will be the designated home team.