Two-minute drill

Newport Harbor High’s impressive 28-14 home football victory against previously ranked Loyola of Los Angeles on Thursday didn’t impress those who voted for the top 10 in this week’s CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division poll.

Coach Jeff Brinkley isn’t too worried about the poll. Brinkley, in his 24th year at Newport Harbor, is two victories shy of No. 200 at the school.

“I don’t know,” Brinkley said about whether his team deserved to crack the top 10 this week. “I don’t care. I just want us to keep getting better.”

The Sailors are off to a 2-0 start, their first since the 2006 season. In the previous two years, Newport Harbor faced juggernaut Long Beach Poly in its second nonleague game of the year and lost each time.

Before the season, Brinkley decided to play Loyola, which was ranked No. 10 last week. Loyola dropped to 1-2 and found itself out of the poll after losing at Davidson Field.

Newport Harbor might find itself in the top 10 next week if it can beat Back Bay rival Corona del Mar.

The Sea Kings are the No. 2-ranked team in the Southern Division poll.

After Newport Harbor defeated Loyola, Brinkley didn’t want to talk about playing the 3-0 Sea Kings at Orange Coast College.

“I’m not thinking about that one right now,” Brinkley said. “I’m enjoying this. I can’t worry about those guys right now.”

 After watching from the sideline as then-senior Mitch Sands threw a school record 21-regular-season touchdown passes last season, Corona del Mar senior Michael Borchard is using a more direct route to the end zone this season.

Borchard, the Sea Kings’ fastest player, ran for three touchdowns in a 27-14 nonleague win over Troy Thursday night at Orange Coast College to give him seven rushing TDs in three games.

With most of his 29 carries coming via the spread-option attack, including an 80-yard scoring sprint against Troy, Borchard has 177 rushing yards this season.

He has also thrown for 420 yards and two TDs, completing 26 of 50 passes with two interceptions.

 Estancia High junior Matt Carlyle was the Eagles’ leading receiver through two games, with eight catches.

In Thursday’s 33-14 nonleague win at Buena Park, Carlyle had two catches — both on defense.

His pair of first-quarter interceptions helped Estancia build an early lead and cruise to their second straight win.

“We ran the ball a lot, because the line really stepped it up,” Carlyle said. “We didn’t really need to pass the ball tonight.”

Coach Mike Bargas is appreciative of Carlyle’s impact on both sides of the ball.

“He’s a very smart football player,” Bargas said. “What he lacks in size, he makes up for in knowledge.”

 Despite no catches by Carlyle, the passing game did work nicely for Estancia (2-1).

Senior quarterback Alek Kirshner completed eight of 12 passes for 105 yards and a TD.

Kirshner has not thrown an interception this season.

“It’s nice that we have that available for us, because last year we were a little bit deficient on [passing],” Bargas said. “Alek’s throwing a nice ball, and we’ll keep working on it so we can get the timing down.”

 It wasn’t until early in the second quarter that Costa Mesa High senior team captain Brian Waldron, a two-way starter at receiver and defensive back, touched the ball in the Mustangs’ 28-14 nonleague win over Saddleback Thursday at Estancia High.

But from then on, Waldron helped turn a close game into a two-touchdown lead by converting Todd Davis passes into scoring receptions of 62 and 57 yards.

“He’s my hero and our big playmaker,” Davis said.

Waldron had five receptions for 159 yards and he added an interception.

 Sage Hill School (2-1) is hurting after dropping its first game of the season.

The Lightning saw visiting Tri-City Christian of Vista rally from a two-touchdown deficit in the second half to win, 35-21, and a couple of starters go down with injuries.

First-year coach J.R. Tolver said junior quarterback Randall Mycorn separated his shoulder and senior linebacker Brendan Killaly sprained his knee.

Tolver expects Mycorn to miss anywhere from two to four weeks and he wasn’t sure about Killaly, who also starts on the offensive line.

“We just have to rally around each other,” Tolver said.

 Perhaps the most crowd-pleasing contribution senior John Christian made to the CdM victory over Troy was a game-clinching, nine-yard sack on fourth-and-goal with the Warriors at the CdM nine-yard line with 20 seconds left.

But Christian’s other contributions on fourth down — as the Sea Kings’ punter — may have been even more valuable. Christian averaged 42.4 yards on five punts, including boots of 50, 45 and 45 yards.

Junior Andrew Boehm’s kickoffs also helped CdM win the field-position battle. Boehm launched three into the end zone for touchbacks and another that the returner fielded at the goal line and returned to the Troy 21-yard line.

 An otherwise stifling defensive performance by CdM was potentially compromised when twice Troy, which came in with just four completions in two games and was a mere five for 24 passing Thursday, had a receiver flanked wide that was uncovered by a Sea Kings defender.

The first time, CdM Coach Jason Hitchens called timeout, before a potential big play ensued. The second time, the Warriors got the snap off, but ran up the middle.

 Penalties hurt Newport Harbor’s chance to break the game open before halftime.

Leading, 14-0, the offense reached the Cubs’ 26. However, Newport Harbor was flagged four times for 35 yards, leaving the offense with a third-and-49 on its own 35.

When it appeared a call would go Newport Harbor’s way after a Loyola defender hit quarterback Austin Rios late, no flag was thrown. This upset Brinkley, who went on the field and yelled at an official.

 Newport Harbor mistakes allowed Loyola to stay in the game.

With the Sailors on Loyola’s 21, an interception with 36 seconds left before halftime stalled a drive.

In the third quarter, after Cedric Whitaker’s second rushing touchdown gave Newport Harbor a 21-0 lead, special teams and a personal foul hurt the Sailors.

On the ensuing kickoff, Loyola returned it 74 yards to Newport Harbor’s 25. The drive looked over until a personal foul on fourth-and-24 gave the Cubs a firsts down.

Loyola scored on the next play and the Cubs scored again after a Newport Harbor fumble to cut the lead to 21-14 with 1:01 left in the third quarter.

Whitaker eased things for Newport Harbor when he returned a kickoff 94 yards for a touchdown.

 Without Mycorn, Sage Hill struggled mightily on offense in the second half.

The Lightning were shut out, recorded 30 yards of offense, all on the ground, and they committed four turnovers in the final two quarters.

Hurting the Sage Hill offense was seeing running back Taylor Ross cramp up late in the third quarter. At the time, Sage Hill was hanging on to a 21-14 lead.

Ross had carried the ball 12 times for 48 yards, but his 13th rush came on the final play of the game with the Lightning on their way to suffering their first defeat of the season.

— From staff reports