Two-minute drill

Before learning otherwise, junior outside linebacker Cecil Whiteside believed Newport Harbor High earned the right to return to the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division football playoffs for the second straight year.

“I’m tired,” Whiteside said after the Sailors came from behind in their regular-season finale to upset Los Alamitos, 24-23, in a Sunset League game Thursday at Gahr High in Cerritos.

Whiteside and the rest of the defense elevated their play toward the end of the regular season and knocked off the Griffins, ranked No. 5 in last week’s Pac-5 Division poll.

But Newport Harbor (7-3, 3-2 in league) didn’t receive one of the league’s three automatic postseason berths.

Esperanza upset Edison, 16-3, at Orange Coast College Friday, forcing a five-team tie at 3-2 atop the league standings. A drawing was held later that night to determine the league’s three playoff representatives.

Newport Harbor wasn’t one of the three schools chosen at Edison High’s weight room.

Esperanza (7-3, 3-2) received the league’s No. 1 entry, followed by Fountain Valley (7-3, 3-2) at No. 2, and Los Alamitos (8-2, 3-2) at No. 3. Newport Harbor beat Esperanza and Los Alamitos this year.

But Edison (7-3, 3-2) was the first to receive at-large consideration because the Chargers defeated Newport Harbor. The Chargers were ranked No. 6 in last week’s Pac-5 Division poll. Edison was denied the division’s lone at-large berth.

Newport Harbor’s season is over, even though it shares the league crown with four other teams. This is the school’s first league title since 2005, when the Sailors won the Sea View League.

It’s the Sailors’ first Sunset League title since 1974. The Sailors played in the Sunset League from 1967-1980 and rejoined it in 2006.

• In a regular-season finale for the Orange Coast League championship, Costa Mesa High came out rusty Friday.

“We were off for two weeks,” Coach Jeremy Osso said.

It showed in the opening quarter as Laguna Beach scored the game’s first 22 points before the Mustangs battled back at Estancia High.

Defense and the ability to run the ball in the last three quarters helped Costa Mesa pull off a 38-30 comeback win, clinching the program’s first outright league title since 2002.

Senior running backs Antwon Byrd and Robbie Gemayel played huge roles for Costa Mesa (5-5, 4-0 in league), which shared the league crown last season with crosstown rival Estancia.

Byrd led the team with 149 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 25 carries and Gemayel finished with 126 yards on 11 carries.

Two of Gemayel’s runs went for big plays. Both came on dives, fooling Laguna Beach (4-6, 3-1). The first was a 48-yard run that set up Byrd’s first touchdown early in the second quarter.

The second run went for 49 yards, leaving the Mustangs’ on the Breakers’ one late in the fourth quarter.

Fullback Justin Miller scored on the next play, giving Costa Mesa a 31-30 lead with 1:59 to go.

On Laguna Beach’s next play from scrimmage, Costa Mesa recovered the Breakers’ second fourth-quarter fumble.

The Mustangs started on the Breakers’ 36. Three plays later, backup quarterback Brian Waldron found the end zone for the second time in the quarter.

Waldron scored on a 13-yard run to put Costa Mesa ahead, 38-30, with 63 seconds left.

There was plenty of time for the Breakers to put a drive together.

Helping their cause was an excessive celebration penalty on Costa Mesa, assessed on the kickoff. A 16-yard return put Laguna Beach on Costa Mesa’s 44.

The Breakers got as close as the seven due to Costa Mesa being flagged for pass interference with no time left on the clock.

Quarterback Austin Paxson then had a wide-open player in the end zone, but his pass bounced off the intended receiver’s chest and fell incomplete.

It was the second time Costa Mesa stopped the Breakers inside the 10-yard line.

The other was right before halftime, when the defense gang-tackled running back Zach Smith one yard shy of the end zone.

It marked one of the few times the Mustangs stopped Smith, who finished with a career-best 303 yards and three touchdowns on 34 carries.

“It was very nerve-wracking,” Byrd said. “[This was] by far the most important game of the season.

“I feel that we can do anything.”

• The highest scoring regular-season in Corona del Mar history (288 points) has given first-year Sea Kings Coach Jason Hitchens some justifiable confidence in his offense.

Four times in Friday’s 20-10 Pacific Coast League win over Beckman, Hitchens passed up an option to punt on fourth down. Each time, CdM (8-2, 3-1 in league) had advanced inside the Beckman 40-yard line, with the furthest instance at the Patriots’ 26-yard line. But, each time, the Sea Kings needed at least 12 yards to get a first down.

Twice the Sea Kings got the first down, which led to a touchdown and a field goal. Beckman recorded a sack and an interception on CdM’s other two fourth-down attempts, but neither time did the Patriots mount any semblance of a scoring drive.

“Our coach feels that any time the ball is in our hands, a big play can happen,” said senior receiver Noah Molnar, who caught fourth-down passes from Mitch Sands for 37 and 15 yards, each time moving the chains.

• Newport Harbor senior quarterback Andrew McDonald was awfully proud of junior kicker Dillan Freiberg.

Freiberg nailed the game-winning 22-yard field goal against Los Alamitos with 13 seconds left.

The drive started on the Sailors’ 20 and it took 12 plays to put the game away.

“The offense gave me the chance,” Freiberg said.

McDonald looked sharp during the drive that consumed four minutes, six seconds, completing three passes for first downs.

“I thought I didn’t play my best game, but it doesn’t matter,” said McDonald, who rallied after throwing an interception and fumbling as he finished 17 for 24 passing with 254 yards and one touchdown. “We came out with the [win].”

McDonald threw for 1,625 yards and 14 touchdowns with six interceptions on the season.

• Costa Mesa claimed its seventh football league championship in school history. Three times the Mustangs have won it outright by going unbeaten in league play.

Costa Mesa was 6-0 in the Golden West League in 2002, and 4-0-1 in the Pacific Coast League in 1993.

• Calvary Chapel Coach Lyle Lansdell, a former offensive coordinator at Corona del Mar, summed up his play-calling in a 12-10 Orange Coast League win over Estancia Thursday in a battle for third place with one word: “Boring.”

Calvary, indeed, stuck to the ground, primarily between the tackles, amassing 59 running plays to only two passes (both completions for a total of 12 yards). Only 12 of Calvary’s running plays gained fewer than three yards and it totaled 281 rushing yards.

• Another big reason Calvary was able to run 18 more plays than Estancia (3-7, 1-3 in league), was its ability to keep the chains moving.

Calvary converted eight of 12 third-down opportunities. And three of the four times it failed, it converted on the subsequent fourth down.

• After beating Los Alamitos, Brinkley said he had no control over who would represent the league in the playoffs (pending Friday’s game).

“We had to take care of our end,” Brinkley said Thursday. “I’m so proud of these guys.”

The Sailors rallied after starting league play with two close losses to Edison and Fountain Valley. They finished the season with three straight wins.

• Corona del Mar, which finished second in league and is the No. 2 seed in the CIF Southern Section Southern Division playoffs, has largely avoided serious injuries this season.

The Sea Kings, however, lost sophomore free safety Will Morrow for the season with a torn meniscus in the Oct. 24 game against Irvine.

Ever since, Hitchens said a committee has been used to play the safety spot, including senior Tyler Haly, Molnar and senior Andrew Hicks.

• Lansdell said all the time his offense spent on the field produced one tired unit. He said he called at least one timeout in the fourth quarter just to give his offense a rest.

“We were tired,” said Lansdell, who kept a particularly close watch on senior running back Scott Matsuda. Matsuda, who carried 32 times for 185 yards, might have had more, had he not had to take breaks due to being a diabetic.

“We were monitoring his blood sugar on the sideline all night,” Lansdell said.

• CdM’s 288 points in 10 games are a regular-season school record. But the Sea Kings still have some work to do to break the school single-season record of 366 set in 1995.

— From staff reports