Sailors denied again

NEWPORT BEACH — After every Newport Harbor High football game, Coach Jeff Brinkley spends his late Friday nights at a booster function.

The tradition has gone on for 24 straight years and counting. The coaching staff, boosters and parents go over the evening’s highs and lows.

The last two games, there have been more letdowns.

The latest contest was supposed to be the night Brinkley celebrated his 200th career victory with the Sailors. The 56-year-old is stuck at No. 199.

Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach beat the host Sailors, 24-10, Friday, handing them their second straight loss in as many weeks.

The function after the game wasn’t going into the wee hours as planned.

Newport Harbor (3-2) quickly has to correct its issues, starting with the offense. The robust Sunset League begins next week. Seventeen points is all the Sailors have to show in the past two games.

The road to joining seven other Orange County coaches to have won 200 games is getting longer for Brinkley.

A visibly upset Brinkley dismissed what’s ahead for Newport Harbor, which shared the league title last year with four other teams. In the next three weeks, the Sailors play host to teams ranked in the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division top 10 poll.

“I’m not worried about the league,” said Brinkley, whose next three games are against No. 6 Los Alamitos (5-0), No. 1 Edison (5-0) and No. 7 Fountain Valley (5-0). “I’m worried about losing this football game. Our kids expect to win and they play hard. We weren’t good enough [Friday].”

The Sailors haven’t been the previous two weeks.

Mira Costa (3-2) was the second straight team to expose Newport Harbor’s inability to throw the ball downfield. As Dana Hills accomplished last week in a 41-7 victory against the Sailors, the defense focused on stopping the run, especially Cedric Whitaker.

The Mustangs, ranked No. 2 in the Western Division, limited the flashy running back. At halftime, Whitaker ran six times for three yards. He finished with 55 yards on 12 carries.

Newport Harbor opened the second half down, 14-0. Make it two straight weeks the Sailors have trailed at halftime. The offense’s answer to open the third quarter was a 33-yard field goal by Dillan Freiberg.

Not enough firepower as the Sailors dropped back-to-back nonleague games before league for the second time since 2005.

“They were more physical than us,” Brinkley said.

The Sailors tried to match the Mustangs’ aggression and they went a little overboard in the fourth quarter.

Trailing, 17-10, after Newport Harbor quarterback Austin Rios hit wide receiver Cecil Whiteside on a 10-yard touchdown pass early in the quarter, a hit on special teams hurt the Sailors.

The defense forced Mira Costa to punt, but a roughing-the-punter penalty gave the Mustangs a new set of downs on Newport Harbor’s 44 with 7:05 left to play.

Mira Costa went into the game with revenge on its mind after being blown out by Newport Harbor, 42-14, at home last year. No one was going to deny the Mustangs.

Quarterback Kyle DeMarco converted a first down on third down and then something bigger on fourth down. On the one, DeMarco scored on a sneak with 3:11 remaining, giving Mira Costa a two-touchdown advantage.

“There was no doubt what we were doing,” DeMarco said of going for it on fourth down. “We were coming here to win.”

Mira Costa pulled out all its tricks to beat Newport Harbor for only the second time in six games.

A halfback pass from Jackson Morrow to Kyle Nunn went 75 yards for a touchdown, putting the Mustangs up, 14-0, in the second quarter.

Mira Costa felt it was getting closer to winning, not knowing it was about to be another team to ruin Brinkley’s late-Friday-night event.

“I knew he’s gotten a lot of wins,” said Mira Costa Coach Don Morrow, unaware Brinkley was attempting to claim his 200th victory at Newport Harbor. “I have tremendous respect and actually we model a lot of what we do in our program after what he does. We talked to him [Friday] and they want to play again [next year].”

If Brinkley had it his way, he would want a do-over.

Mira Costa 24, Newport Harbor 10

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Mira Costa 7-7-3-7--24

Newport Harbor 0-0-3-7--10

FIRST QUARTER

MC – Reece 3 run (Norocea kick), 1:59.

SECOND QUARTER

MC – Nunn 75 pass from Morrow (Norocea kick), 9:35.

THIRD QUARTER

NH – Freiberg 33 FG, 9:20.

MC – Norocea 21 FG, 5:44.

FOURTH QUARTER

NH – Whiteside 10 pass from Rios (Freiberg kick), 10:21.

MC – DeMarco 1 run (Norocea kick), 3:11.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

MC – Wright, 10-63; Reece, 8-44, 1 TD; DeMarco, 12-36, 1 TD; Tavai, 3-12; Mobley, 1-3.

NH – Whitaker, 12-55; Andrews, 5-28; Rios, 4-minus 4.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

MC – DeMarco, 11-16-1, 155; Morrow, 1-1-0, 75, 1 TD.

NH – Rios, 14-23-1, 103, 1 TD.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

MC – Nunn, 3-132, 1 TD; Tavai, 3-45; Miller, 5-39; Morrow, 1-14.

NH – Norton, 3-28; Whiteside, 4-26, 1 TD; Truxton, 2-25; Whitaker, 4-15; Andrews, 1-9.