IRVINE — He was the man on offense. The man on defense. The man on special teams. Joseph Harper was Mr. Everywhere on Friday night as he led Northwood to a decisive 34-20 victory over Ayala in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 6 playoffs.
With their victory, the Timberwolves (9-2) will play on the road in the quarterfinals against fourth-seeded Murrieta Mesa, a 42-0 winner over Ontario Christian.
Ayala finished 2-9, with nine consecutive losses, after a brutal schedule that included facing seven teams with winning records.
Harper was the centerpiece of a well-rounded effort by the Timberwolves that was excellent in all three phases of the game. He rushed for a touchdown, he blocked a punt that led to a touchdown, he had two sacks. He did it all as he tries to lead Northwood to its third section title in four years – all with him as a starter.
“That’s the best, by far, our offense has played all year,” Northwood coach JC Clarke said afterward. “The offense was phenomenal.”
Clarke had reason to be stoked about his offense because Northwood is best known for its defense, a physical, suffocating unit that allows 9.2 points per game. The Timberwolves’ two losses this season were 7-6 to Laguna Beach and 10-6 to Orange.
If the offense is rolling, as it was on Friday, Northwood has reason to be optimistic.
“I thought we played pretty good, got pressure on the quarterback,” said Harper, who does the running back/middle linebacker double duty, as he carries on the legacy of his brother, Adam Harper, a section player of the year who rushed for more than 5,000 career yards.
“The quarterback was pretty good. On film he was throwing really good balls. The running back – going in, I thought we had to stop him. If we make the first tackle, I think we stop them to a lot less than we did.”
Ayala certainly had some athletes, and the Bulldogs showed their capability. But Northwood’s physicality was superior. On Ayala’s first possession of the third quarter, Northwood’s Donald Longo scooped up a fumble in the backfield and took it in 39 yards for a touchdown and a 20-point lead.
On the first play of the fourth quarter with Ayala punting from its 30, Harper burst through the line and blocked the punt and recovered it, carrying it to the 5. Three plays later, Quentin Lynch scored from 2 yards to make it 34-7 with 10 minutes 33 seconds remaining.
“That’s the first time in nine years that we’ve had a kick blocked from that formation,” said Ayala coach AJ Gracia, who called the game a microcosm of his team’s season: Moments of progress followed by setbacks, good moments tempered by mistakes.
“All the credit to the Northwood coaching staff, they got the most out of their players from an athletic standpoint, from a physicality standpoint, and from a scheme standpoint,” Gracia said. “They did a lot of things that made it difficult for us to get anything explosive on offense.”
By the end, Ayala compiled some impressive offensive numbers, but most of it came in the fourth quarter after falling behind by four touchdowns and Northwood’s second-team offense struggling to move the ball forward.
Ayala’s Alex Way completed 24 of 37 passes for 215 yards, an interception and two touchdowns. But Jedi Hernandez, the speedy back who worried Northwood’s defense, had 49 yards on nine carries. Nobody else had more than a yard.
Northwood’s Gavin Lounsbury completed 10 of 13 passes for 161 yards to five receivers. He threw two touchdown passes.
Northwood looked great on offense at the outset. It fed Harper and gave him the opportunity to pound through the Ayala line. And then, opportunistically as the Ayala defense loaded the box for the run, throw the ball over the defense. Harper carried six times for 27 yards on the opening drive when Lounsbury threw into the end zone, finding Jack Schultz for a 41-yard score at 7:48 in the first quarter.
The lead was short-lived. Brenton Smith needed just 14 seconds to deliver a 94-yard kickoff return that stunned the home crowd.
Then it was back to a steady diet of Harper and a deep strike to Isaac Kwon for 35 yards and a 14-7 margin.
“They loaded the box to stop the run,” Harper said, so Northwood went over the top.
Ayala came to win. Twice in the first half they went for it on fourth down between the 40-yard lines. The second time, when sophomore Jacob Harper, who is Joseph’s younger brother, tackled Hernandez for a 3-yard loss on fourth-and-2, it hurt the Bulldogs.
Northwood went 54 yards in 10 plays, capped by Joseph Harper bounding his way into the end zone from 5 yards with 40 seconds left in the half to take a 21-7 lead.
Impressively, Lounsbury completed 5 of 6 passes on the drive, including a crossing pattern to Cole Hidalgo that covered 20 yards on fourth-and-2 that kept the drive alive.
Harper ended the game with 73 yards on 15 carries – all in the first half. In the second half, he focused on defense and delivered the blocked punt that led to a touchdown, and two sacks.
Kwon had an interception for Northwood, and made a great play to knock away what would have been a long TD pass as Ayala tried to make it a one-score game at 34-20 in the closing minutes. It was a nice rally by the Bulldogs and they could have made it interesting if they had connected on another big play down the stretch, but the game did not feel as close as the score.
Now, it’s up to the Timberwolves to repeat the performance. Do they have the kind of consistency to repeat next week against one of the division favorites?
“I think we do have that kind of consistency in us,” said Joseph Harper, who has rushed for more than 1,000 yards. “If our offense can click, I could see us going on a run.”
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