Prep football: Tars pound Sea Kings, 35-7

Barry Faulkner

NEWPORT BEACH - Chris Manderino, who quarterbacked the Newport

Harbor High football team to a CIF Southern Section championship last

fall, might have thought that was a high-profile job.

But, in Friday night’s Battle of the Bay XXXIX against cross-town

rival Corona del Mar, the senior showed the spotlight can be a little

brighter 6 yards deeper in the backfield at tailback.

Manderino, shifted to tailback for the second half of last week’s

nonleague loss to Marina, made himself at home from the start in his

first varsity start at the position he played as a freshman.

The 6-foot-1, 205-pounder bulled, spun, sidestepped and pulled through

the CdM defense for 216 yards and three touchdowns to key a 35-7

nonleague victory.

With Manderino carrying the load, the Sailors (2-1 and ranked No. 6 in

CIF Division VI, steamrolled to the end zone on their first four

possessions to claim their second straight win over the Sea Kings (0-3),

their sixth in the last seven meetings and their 27th in the battle for

the perpetual Bell trophy.

Manderino carried 12 times for 74 yards on the Tars’ opening drive,

which covered 99 yards on 15 plays. Junior quarterback Morgan Craig’s

7-yard touchdown rollout pass to tight end Joe Foley capped the

impressive procession, which appeared to take any upset aspirations away

from the designated visitors.

After a three-and-out, Harbor marched 74 yards on nine plays, with

Manderino doing the honors on a 24-yard run.

Manderino, who also starred at outside linebacker, collecting one of

the hosts’ three interceptions and helping force CdM’s only lost fumble,

capped the next two scoring drives with runs of 16 and 15 yards.

After netting 22 more yards on the first two carries of Harbor’s fifth

possession, Manderino strolled to the bench, garnering the appreciative

applause of the home crowd, which accounted for most of the overflow

5,100 in attendance.

“He’s a big ol’ guy, who reminds me of Wade Tift (who finished his

three varsity seasons in 1993 with 2,621 career rushing yards),” Newport

Harbor Coach Jeff Brinkley said of Manderino.

“And our offensive line did a fantastic job.”

The Harbor front wall of tackles Scott Lopez and Robert Chai, guards

Jim Erickson and Ryan Devin, center Jeff Marshall, as well as fullback

Travis Trimble and Foley, helped amass 314 ground yards. This from a team

which had rushed for 150 yards combined its first two games.

The Sailor defense also did its job, limiting CdM to 14 yards total

offense the first half and just 71 yards through three quarters.

The Newport reserves played most of the final period, when CdM

produced a 7-yard Dylan Hendy scoring pass to Steven Ward with 1:24 left

to avert the shutout.

“The defense did a good job stopping the run and I thought our

secondary played well,” Brinkley said.

Both Brinkley and Manderino noted the win was especially sweet in the

light of the somber mode created by the loss to Marina, which ended a

15-game unbeaten streak.

“We needed that,” Brinkley said. “It was a tough week for us (after

Marina) and we needed to come out and play well.”

Junior cornerback Brian Gaeta intercepted two passes in the third

quarter, senior end Garrett Troncale had the Tars’ lone sack, cornerback

Ryan Spruth broke up a couple passes and linebackers Alan Saenz and Andy

Rankin joined Manderino, tackles Nick Moghaddam and Foley, end Ian

Banigan, and safeties Dane Barton and David Sprenger to keep CdM’s

offense under wraps.

The Sea Kings got some big defensive plays from senior safety Eric

Snell, end Scott Biggs (the lone sack), Justin Wald and Tyler McClellan,

but Harbor proved too powerful for the duration.

“That was the best third quarter we’ve had,” CdM Coach Dick Freeman,

searching for a positive, said. The Sea Kings had been outscored, 49-0,

in the third quarter the first two weeks.

In addition to the Harbor ground attack, which included nine

ballcarriers, Craig, and sophomore backup Michael McDonald, were

thoroughly efficient through the air.

Craig completed all five of his passes for 46 yards and McDonald

connected on a 14-yard pickup to Trimble which set up his team’s final

touchdown, scored by senior Ryan Ortega.

Manderino, who began his unbeaten run as the starting quarterback

against CdM last fall, hopes the impressive win will start another

streak.

“This was a big win, because we needed to start building some momentum

heading into (Sea View) league,” Manderino said. “There was a lot of

frustration after last week and you can never feel good after a loss. And

beating CdM is always big. It’s one of the biggest games of the year.”