Knights dominate, 45-21

Barry Faulkner

TUSTIN -- The Foothill High football team saved its regular-season

best for last, which was more than enough to handle Sea View League

visitor Newport Harbor, 45-21, Thursday night at Tustin High.

The convincing victory, combined with Laguna Hills’ 33-6 triumph

over Irvine Thursday, gave the Knights (8-2, 4-1 in league), ranked

No. 3 in CIF Southern Section Division VI, the outright league title

in their debut Sea View season.

The loss knocked the Sailors (7-3, 3-2) into a three-way tie for

second with Laguna Hills and Irvine. Coin flips by athletic directors

from the three schools will be held today, scheduled for 9 a.m. at

Irvine High, to determine which two of the three will earn the

league’s two remaining guaranteed playoff spots. The odd school out

in today’s flip will be forced to compete for the division’s lone

at-large berth. Newport, which would almost certainly earn the

at-large entry, should it lose today’s flip, defeated Laguna Hills

and lost to Irvine this season.

But the Sailors, ranked No. 6 in Division VI, hope the coin

bounces better for them than the oblong ball did Thursday, including

a great break for the Knights on their first possession.

On third-and-14 at their own 22, following a sack by inside

linebacker Fernando Castorena, Foothill receiver Quincy Lever had a

lateral pass go through his hands in the left flat. But, since it was

a lateral, it remained live and bounced back into his hands while he

was still in stride. He sliced through the Sailor defenders, who had

frozen for a second thinking it was an imcomplete pass, and raced 78

yards for a touchdown and a lead the Knights would never relinquish.

It was the first of three 78-yard scoring plays for Foothill, the

speed of which caused pregame concern from Newport Harbor Coach Jeff

Brinkley, as well as a shift in defensive alignment from the Tars’

typical four-three, to a three-four.

Foothill senior tailback Mike Liti raced 78 yards with a screen

pass to make it 14-0 with 40 seconds left in the second quarter. The

5-foot-11, 210-pound Liti, both elusive and powerful, bolted 78 yards

on a sweep for the Knights’ final touchdown midway through the final

period. He finished with 321 yards from scrimmage and four

touchdowns. His 230 rushing yards gave him 1,107 in five league

games.

“He was banged up a little early in the season, but he’s back in

shape now and confident,” Foothill Coach Doug Case said. “That was

the Mike Liti we’ve seen in the past.”

It was also, Case said, the Foothill team many predicted would win

the league title this fall.

“We were picked to do good things this year, and rightfully so,

because we have some players,” Case said. “But we just haven’t gotten

a lot of breaks. I challenged our kids to play their best game for

four quarters and that was what they did. This was by far our best

game of the year. People say you want to be peaking going into the

playoffs and that’s what we’re doing.”

Foothill’s explosive offensive performance (513 yards rushing and

passing), included a fortuitous carom on a 19-yard touchdown pass

that helped them widen their 21-7 halftime lead with 9:59 left in the

third quarter. Foothill quarterback Don Poole, who completed 11 of 15

for three touchdowns and 179 yards, lofted a ball to the back of the

end zone, where Brad Walker came down with it, after a collision

appeared to jar the ball from the hands of a Sailor defender.

Foothill iced the victory on its next possession, driving 87 yards

on 13 plays, eating 5:59 off the clock. Liti capped the march by

powering 4 yards up the middle and Doug McAuley added the fifth of

his six conversion kicks to make it 35-7 with 1:51 left.

Newport scored a pair of fourth-quarter TDs, including a 1-yard

Dartangan Johnson run and a 7-yard pass from Michael McDonald to

Spencer Link.

Johnson finished with 145 yards on 25 carries, while McDonald, who

completed six of his last eight passes against a prevent defense,

finished 10 of 23 for 137 yards.

It was the most points allowed by Newport Harbor since a 45-6 Sea

View loss to Santa Margarita in 1997, a span of 67 games.

The 24-point deficit was the biggest in 53 games, since Santa

Margarita posted a 38-14 league win in 1998.

“They were too athletic for us,” Brinkley said of the Knights. “We

had to do something different defensively, because we hadn’t been

stopping anyone with our base defense.”