Newport Harbor football drops win-and-in game to Villa Park

ORANGE â€”  Newport Harbor experienced its share of peaks and valleys in a streaky campaign, but its last chance to save its season went by the wayside on Friday against Villa Park at Fred Kelly Stadium.

The Sailors quickly fell behind by three scores midway through the first quarter, ultimately falling to the host Spartans 46-21 in a winner-take-all game for the third and final guaranteed berth out of the Bravo League into the CIF Southern Section football playoffs.

Villa Park (7-3, 3-2) scored 37 unanswered points to begin the contest, capped by a 64-yard passing touchdown from Nate Lewis to Jacob Poff. Lewis, who had two rushing touchdowns, added a 52-yard field goal on the final play of the first half.

Coming off a 42-10 loss to San Juan Hills that snapped a two-game winning streak for Villa Park, Lewis said the Spartans refocused with the season on the line.

“Tough loss last week,” Lewis said. “I think that definitely got our team riled up. We had a great week of practice, really high energy, really focused. We came out with great energy. I think we came out wanting to win more than them. We came out, established our run game, had a few good runs, and just jumped on them really quick.”

Newport Harbor (3-7, 2-3) did not see its name appear in the brackets when the section released its playoff pairings over the weekend. The Sailors dropped four games in a row to begin the season, then rallied to win three consecutive contests — including league wins over rival Corona del Mar and Tesoro — to revive their season and present the season finale’s potential playoff-clinching scenario.

“We had a lot of ups and downs,” Newport Harbor coach Matt Burns said. “We’ve had a ton of injuries. At one point, we had 20-plus injuries of guys that contributed and started, and that has been very difficult with the whole team. We’ve had the philosophy of next guy up, done a really a good job of coaching those other guys up and guys stepping up when it was their turn.”

Burns gave high marks to seniors Cade Fegel and Sammy Stremick, who combined for nine of 15 receiving scores by the Sailors this season. Stremick, a Mater Dei transfer, caught a 14-yard touchdown from Jake Meer on a corner route to end the shutout.

“They’re also both two-way players, which you don’t see a lot of that,” Burns said. “They take 140 snaps a game, and that’s pretty tough on their bodies, and so for both of them do that, it’s pretty impressive.”

Bode Stefano threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Wyatt Wilson in the fourth quarter, the sophomore receiver making a contested catch on a jump ball.

Sophomore Matthew Yamakawa added an 18-yard rushing touchdown on the Sailors’ final scoring drive with just over a minute remaining.

Junior Jonah Takamori was the leading rusher for Newport Harbor with 89 yards on 16 carries. Fegel had eight grabs for 87 yards to lead the receiving corps.

Villa Park would not be denied in the run game, even managing to engineer a touchdown drive after the Sailors pinned the Spartans deep at the 1-yard line on a punt.

“We kind of switched up some of our offense,” Villa Park coach Dusan Ancich said. “I thought we peaked at the right time of year because that’s the best our line has blocked for four quarters.”

Villa Park will play host to Vista Murrieta (6-4) in the first round of the Division 3 playoffs on Friday at Fred Kelly Stadium.

Bravo League

Villa Park 46, Newport Harbor 21

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Newport Harbor 0 - 7 - 0 - 14 — 21

Villa Park 22 - 18 - 0 - 6 — 46

FIRST QUARTER

VP — Reyes 3 run (Lewis run), 9:00.

VP — Lewis 20 run (Lewis run), 8:00.

VP — Ancich 4 run (Lewis run failed), 5:41.

SECOND QUARTER

VP — Lewis 31 run (Lewis run), 11:51.

VP — Poff 64 pass from Lewis (Lewis kick), 8:12.

NH — Stremick 14 pass from Meer (Rico kick), 3:56.

VP — Lewis 52 FG, 0:00.

THIRD QUARTER

None.

FOURTH QUARTER

NH — Wilson 19 pass from Stefano (Rico kick), 11:03.

VP — Santa Cruz 2 run (Lewis kick failed), 6:06.

NH — Yamakawa 18 run (Rico kick), 1:06.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

NH — Takamori, 16-89; Yamakawa, 7-58, 1 TD.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

NH — Meer, 10-18-1, 108, 1 TD; Stefano, 3-4-0, 51, 1 TD.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

NH — Fegel, 8-87; Stremick, 3-42, 1 TD.