Newport Harbor football rallies, falls to Trabuco Hills on late field goal

Slow and steady won the race, at least this time.

Newport Harbor mounted a furious comeback, but the formula that built a big lead for Trabuco Hills was instrumental in a game-winning drive that ran the clock down to next to nothing.

Taylor Bowie carried the ball 10 times for 51 yards on the final drive, and Ethan Schwartz’s 20-yard field goal was true, as the host Sailors fell to the Mustangs 24-21 in a CIF Southern Section Division 4 football playoff opener on Friday at Davidson Field.

Bowie had 38 carries for 222 yards and three touchdowns, which allowed Sea View League champion Trabuco Hills (8-3) to jump out to a 21-0 lead. He did so behind an offensive line of Greg Shade, Caedmon Wood, Yusuf Kaya, Izaac Stroman and Brody Brown, assisted by tight end Noah Barrett.

“I’ll do anything for those guys,” Bowie said. “Those are my brothers, and I’ll go as hard as I need to to get the win.”

Newport Harbor (5-6) looked out of it as halftime approached, but with the Sailors’ big-play potential, they were just in need of a spark. They got it when Josiah Lamarque returned an interception at midfield for a touchdown.

After the Mustangs drove 62 yards on 11 plays on their first drive of the second half, the Sailors got another break when Schwartz’s 33-yard field goal missed wide right.

Jaden O’Neal and Lamarque linked up for a 61-yard touchdown on a fourth-and-3 play on the next drive to narrow the deficit to one score.

“I just tried to put my heart and soul into this team, this game,” Lamarque said. “It’s been a quick four years. You don’t really know it’s gone until it’s gone. I just tried this whole game, I tried to put us back in this game and win.

“The pick-six was big, it gave us some momentum going into the half, and then we came out and we rattled off two touchdowns. I had a big touchdown, Jordan Anderson had a big touchdown to put us back in the game.”

The Sailors got off the field with a fourth-down stop in the red zone, then pulled even four plays later. O’Neal threw deep up the left sideline to Anderson, who broke away from a defender after making the catch for a 68-yard touchdown four minutes into the fourth quarter.

“The boys were so resilient in the second half,” Newport Harbor coach Peter Lofthouse said. “Being down 21 with two minutes left [in the first half], Lamarque gets the pick-six and really kind of gave us a spark, some momentum. … Unfortunately, tonight the theme is we cost ourselves the game by penalties and turnovers.”

A three-and-out on defense gave Newport Harbor a shot to take the lead, but a holding penalty and a sack by Ryan Manda and Kenji Gonzales forced a punt.

Bowie largely took care of the rest, aided by a defensive holding penalty against the Sailors on a fourth-and-5 from the Newport Harbor 36-yard line.

“We’ve actually had a better record this year on the road, and we felt, ironically, maybe more comfortable on the road,” Trabuco Hills coach Mark Nolan said. “We played here last year, we felt like we were right in it, right down to the last series, the last play last year.

“Again, we knew it was going to be a fourth-quarter game. Newport Harbor has a really good roster, and we knew they had some playmakers, and we wanted to do everything we could to put our players in a great position.”

Jagger Blauwkamp turned 19 carries into 111 yards, which marked his second 100-yard game on the ground this season.

Newport Harbor was the third-place team in the Sunset League this season. The first win in a decade for the Sailors in the Battle of the Bay rivalry was key in earning the automatic playoff berth.

Trabuco Hills will play host to No. 2-seeded Whittier La Serna (8-3) in the quarterfinals.

“We tried,” Lamarque added. “We worked so hard for this, and at the end of the day, you can’t always get what you want. We got a CIF title run, we brought the [Battle of the Bay trophy] back to our [school]. Not everything’s going to be perfect, but you’ve got to work through adversity, and it’s onto the next.”

CIF Southern Section Division 4 playoffs

Trabuco Hills 24, Newport Harbor 21

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Trabuco Hills 7 - 14 - 0 - 3 — 24

Newport Harbor 0 - 7 - 7 - 7 — 21

FIRST QUARTER

TH — Bowie 1 run (Schwartz kick), 9:37.

SECOND QUARTER

TH — Bowie 1 run (Schwartz kick), 8:38.

TH — Bowie 23 run (Schwartz kick), 3:07.

NH — Lamarque 50 interception return (Richardson kick), 0:56.

THIRD QUARTER

NH — Lamarque 61 pass from O’Neal (Richardson kick), 2:18.

FOURTH QUARTER

NH — O’Neal 68 pass from O’Neal (Richardson kick), 7:50.

TH — Schwartz 20 FG, 0:03.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

TH — Bowie, 38-222, 3 TDs.

NH — Blauwkamp, 19-111.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

TH — Perry, 17-24-1, 163.

NH — O’Neal, 10-22-1, 181, 2 TDs.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

TH — Luce, 10-90.

NH — Anderson, 2-82, 1 TD; Lamarque, 2-67, 1 TD.