Prep football: Curtain Call

Barry Faulkner

NEWPORT BEACH - For most high school students, back to school means

a new outfit, a new binder and an expanded social circle. For members of

the Newport Harbor High football team, the first week of school has

become synonymous with a season-opening victory.

The Sailors, coming off a CIF Southern Section Division VI

championship campaign, will put a couple winning streaks on the line

Friday, when they open the new millennium by hosting Orange Lutheran in a

7 p.m. nonleague game.

Harbor, 13-0-1 last fall, has won 11 straight season debuts, tops in

Orange County. Coach Jeff Brinkley’s 15th edition has also won 12

consecutive games. Further, the Tars, ranked No. 4 in CIF Division VI,

are 28-0-1 in their last 29 games against teams not in the Sea View

League.

Orange Lutheran, ranked No. 5 in CIF Division XI, should provide a

stiffer opening challenge than Orange, which the Sailors defeated nine

straight times (including a 1995 forfeit) and outscored a combined 204-33

the last four games, including a 70-6 thumping in 1998.

The Lancers, 11-1 last year, have won 20 of their last 22. Coach Jim

Kunau’s reigning Olympic League champions, however, lost five players to

four-year college programs, as well as All-CIF quarterback Jason

Whieldon, now at Saddleback College.

Newport, with two starters back on offense and four on defense, also

has plenty of new faces. But among its returners are a pair of marquee

standouts.

Senior quarterback-outside linebacker Chris Manderino was the Daily

Pilot Sea View League MVP a year ago, while senior middle linebacker Alan

“No Trespassing” Saenz, was All-CIF and the Newport-Mesa District

Defensive Player of the Year after leading the team with 74 tackles in

1999.

The Sailors have also been bolstered by a pair of senior Santa

Margarita High transfers, with Scott Lopez (6-foot-2, 285 pounds) and

Ian Banigan (6-3, 218) starting at offensive tackle and defensive end,

respectively.

Manderino, whom Brinkley considered shifting to tailback, threw for

912 yards and 12 touchdowns last season and rushed for 213 yards and six TDs.

Joining Manderino in the backfield will be senior tailback Ryan

Ortega, who assumes the void left by the late Andre Stewart. Stewart,

killed in a car accident last spring, amassed a school single-season

record 2,404 yards last fall.

Ortega the back of the year on last year’s 9-1 junior varsity team,

had 44 varsity carries for 274 yards and two TDs as a junior.

Manderino’s receiving targets will be senior Mitch Gray (two touchdown

catches in last week’s scrimmage with Mission Viejo) and junior Brian

Gaeta.

Gaeta opened last season as the starting quarterback, but, now a

receiver and cornerback, he joins Manderino as the team’s only two-way

starters. He had an interception against Mission Viejo.

Joining Saenz on the defense which allowed the fewest points per game

of any school in Orange County last season (10.6) are senior returning

starters Garrett Troncale (a team-high 12 sacks at end) and Nick

Moghaddam (tackle).

The Sailors will face a multiple-formation offense which produced 520

points (43.3 per game) last season.

That offensive production, however, was largely due to Whieldon’s

talents. He threw for more than 2,800 yards as a senior, 7,507 in his

three-year career.

This season, the Lancers will rely on Robby Hobbs, a 6-2, 215-pound

junior, at quarterback.

“They’ve got some athletes,” Brinkley said of the Lancers, whose

nonleague victims last season included Sea View League representative

Woodbridge.

“They were pretty vanilla in their scrimmage, but we watched them on

film last season against Woodbridge and they came out in multiple sets

and shifted all over the place,” Brinkley said. “It will be critical for

us to get lined up properly.”

Regardless of the challenge, Brinkley said his players are eager to

experience the feeling of playing under Friday night lights.

“This is the real deal now,” he said. “There are so many things that

come into play and things to take care of, it’s going to be exciting.

After training all offseason, our kids have waited for the chance to play

a game.”