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Sports

San Clemente Doubles Down on Newport Harbor, 24-12

Tritons overcome four turnovers, three inside their opponent's red zone, and 165 yards in penalties to defeat the Sailors and remain undefeated after five games.

San Clemente more than doubled the offensive yards and tripled the number of first downs of its opponent, Newport Harbor, on Friday night. But even though the Tritons improved their record to a sparkling 5-0 this season, you couldn’t find many who were thrilled with the way they played.

The Tritons committed four turnovers, three inside the Sailors’ 20-yard "red zone," and were penalized 16 times for 165 yards, seven for personal fouls, in a sloppily played 24-12 victory over Newport Harbor at Thalassa Stadium in San Clemente.

“Our team was breaking down and having a lot of penalties we shouldn’t be having, especially on defense. That broke our composure,” senior Nick Pasquale said. “We are just lucky to get by and be moving on. I feel like we’re a 5-0 team, but I just don’t feel like it tonight.”

In retrospect, San Clemente should have known it was going to be one of those flag-filled evenings when Christian Tober returned the opening kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown, but the play was called back because of a holding penalty.

Still, the Tritons dominated most of the first half, running 34 offensive plays to Newport Harbor’s 18 and forcing the Sailors to punt on their first four possessions. San Clemente led 10-0 early in the second quarter after a 26-yard field goal by Bret Miller and a six-yard touchdown run by Pasquale. The Tritons built a 17-0 lead with 1:48 remaining before halftime on a four-play, 53-yard drive culminating with a five-yard touchdown run by Mike Elespuru.

Newport Harbor (1-3) looked on the verge of being blown out with only 19 total yards of offense when quarterback Cole Blower and wide receiver Landon Gyulay suddenly caught fire. Blower completed four consecutive passes, the last one to Gyulay for a 16-yard touchdown with 18 seconds left in the second quarter. Following a 64-yard return by Titus Hasson to start the second half, Blower completed four more passes, including a 23-yard touchdown strike to Willis Pyle, to cut the deficit to 17-12.

“At the end of the first half, four out of five plays were good, but we have to execute every play,” Tritons coach Jon Hamro said. “Against a team like [Newport] that is well-coached, you know they are going to hang around. We were lucky to avoid that situation. We should have put them away a long time ago.”

After seeing its lead cut to four, San Clemente marched right back with an eight-play drive, but Elespuru fumbled at the Sailors’ five and the ball was recovered by Newport Harbor’s Ted Barry. The Tritons' defense, which allowed only 30 rushing yards in the game, again stopped the Sailors on four plays to force a punt, but Tritons quarterback Travis Wilson threw his second interception of the game on the Sailors’ five yard line.

“Our quarterback [Wilson] has had only one interception all year. He just struggled a little bit tonight,” Pasquale said. “But he hooked up with a lot of guys and made some good plays, too. We just have some work to do.”

After another punt by Newport Harbor, the Tritons offense finally got untracked, going 80 yards in seven plays with the key play coming on a 48-yard completion from Wilson to Tober. Pasquale scored his second touchdown from five yards to give San Clemente a 12-point lead and some breathing room.

Newport Harbor got two more breaks on a Pasquale fumble at the Sailors' 15 and two combined 15-yard penalties that took the ball from their 37 to the Tritons' 32. But San Clemente’s defense stiffened as Landon Cook sacked Blower at the Tritons' 44 with 3:35 remaining, and San Clemente took over and ran out the clock.

“We came out and struggled a little bit, but we came back and really didn’t make any changes after halftime,” Cook said. “We said we just have to play our football. We were getting rowdy, we were finishing our blocks and we were getting physical.”

San Clemente finished with 508 total yards of offense, compared to Newport’s 170, and had 24 first downs to the Sailors’ eight. Elespuru rushed 22 times for 129 yards before a re-occurring ankle injury sidelined him in the fourth quarter. Pasquale ran 11 times for 192 yards. Defensively, the Tritons held Sailors’ running back Titus Hasson to only 33 yards in 20 carries.

Wilson completed 12 of 19 passes for 155 yards with two interceptions, and Blower completed 9 of 17 for 140 yards.

Newport Harbor plays host to Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach in a nonleague game next Thursday, while San Clemente, ranked No. 4 in the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division coaches' poll, plays host to West Adams Prep in an intersectional game on Saturday, Oct. 8.

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