Harbor in search of another Aztec upset

The last time Newport Harbor High faced Esperanza, all Coach Jeff Brinkley recalls is the football field being wet.

The Sailors definitely got their feet wet in their return to the Sunset League last year. In their first league game, they pulled out a stunning 21-13 victory at home.

No showers are in the forecast for Round 2 tonight at 7, as Newport Harbor plays Esperanza at Valencia High. Again the Aztecs enter the game undefeated and ranked in the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division.

For Newport Harbor (5-1, 1-0) to crack the Pac-5 poll, regarded as the toughest in the state with the likes of Mater Dei, Orange Lutheran and Long Beach Poly, it needs to pull off another upset.

Don’t count on No. 10 Esperanza (6-0, 1-0) to cough up the ball five times as it did last year. The Aztecs lost four of those fumbles and saw one of their punts get blocked, which resulted in a Newport Harbor touchdown.

Special teams are an area Brinkley touched on before leaving his office Thursday to scout the Fountain Valley-Los Alamitos league game later that night at Veterans Stadium. After his Sailors scored on a Fountain Valley punting lapse during their 27-7 league-opening victory last week, Brinkley wouldn’t be surprised if the game comes down to special teams.

“They have a good kicking game,” said Brinkley, referring to Esperanza junior kicker Aria Nabipur (four of six field goals) and the Aztecs averaging close to 40 yards per punt. “They’re well-rounded. They run the ball extremely well on offense. They play great defense. It’s going to be a good matchup.”

To make sure the game stays competitive against a team winning by an average margin of 22 points per game, Newport Harbor’s defense will need to prevent Esperanza’s deceptive wing-T offense from eating up the clock. The Sailors will have their hands full against running backs Reid Williams (631 yards, 10 touchdowns) and Jared Moore (511 yards, six touchdowns).

Newport Harbor stopped Fountain Valley’s ground game, forcing its quarterbacks to fumble three times and the fullback once, and allowing 80 yards to a school coming into the game averaging 194.4 yards per game.

But in throttling Fountain Valley, the Sailors lost one of the better defensive players for the year and someone who could help the team return to the postseason after missing it last year by going 3-2 in league. Brinkley said junior Nick Svendsen blew out his right anterior cruciate ligament in the third quarter of last week’s game.

Ned Lyon, a junior, steps in at outside linebacker for Svendsen, who was averaging around seven tackles per game, third best on the team.

“He’s similar,” Brinkley said of Lyon’s ability compared to Svendsen, who besides contributing defensively also played as the third back in some offensive packages, where he blocked.

The two running backs expected to receive the bulk of the carries against last year’s league champ are Ben Frazier, with junior Michael Helfrich spelling the senior. Frazier returned last week after sitting out the previous two games with a knee injury. One of those games was against Mira Costa, a team Newport Harbor beat, 39-30. Esperanza also defeated the Mustangs, 17-12, three weeks earlier.

Brinkley said the knee bothered Frazier in the third quarter against Fountain Valley, but said Frazier is “ready to roll” against Esperanza. If Brinkley is saying that, Frazier must be.

In Brinkley’s eyes, last year against Esperanza, Frazier turned in his best game of his career, not going by stats. But Brinkley chalked up Frazier’s 119 yards and one touchdown on 19 carries as a major reason why Newport Harbor shocked Esperanza, handing the 2005 Division I runner-up its lone league loss.

“Hopefully he can play well again,” said Brinkley, counting on Frazier and the rest to show Esperanza that his Sailors can compete without the help of wet conditions.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at [email protected].