Newbury Park football suffers 1st loss, knocked out by Lincoln

The Newbury Park football team suffered its first loss of the season, falling to Lincoln of San Diego 34-27 in the CIF Division 1-AA Southern Regional game on Friday night.

Lincoln clinched the victory with 20 unanswered points in the fourth quarter and a 17-yard touchdown pass in the last minute from Oregon commit Akili Smith Jr. to Courtney Miller-Thompson in the corner of the end zone.

The game was very chippy with Lincoln being assessed multiple penalties before the national anthem, and the teams also did not shake hands after the game had ended. The Lincoln defense had a strong showing, sacking Florida State commit Brady Smigiel eight times. h Newbury was missing its starting left tackle Angelo Saroukos.

Newbury Park jumped out to a 21-14 lead in the first half that included 11 Lincoln penalties.  Smigiel threw for two touchdown passes and ran for another. Smigiel’s two touchdown strikes went to UC Davis signee Drew Cofield from 40 yards, and to BYU signee Blake Bryce on a 20-yard pass to cap Newbury Park’s first possession.

The two Lincoln scores in the first half came on a 40-yard touchdown pass from Smith Jr. to Isaiah Grant and a 29-yard touchdown run from Smith Jr.

Newbury also had a drive in the first half that spanned over five minutes at the end of the first quarter, but it ended in a lost Smigiel fumble at the Lincoln 34-yard line.

The fumble was forced by Prince Tavizon, who had three sacks in the game for Lincoln. Newbury lost its second leading tackler and middle linebacker Balen Betancourt to an injury after he collided with a referee while downing a punt at the end of the first half.

In the first series of the second half, Newbury drove the ball inside the Lincoln 10-yard line, but the drive again ended on another fumble.

A couple plays after the second Newbury fumble, Blake Bryce forced a Smith Jr. fumble to give Newbury the ball back at the Lincoln 36. Four plays later, Smigiel found his favorite target Shane Rosenthal for a 25-yard touchdown to give Newbury a 27-14 lead in the third quarter. The point after try after the Rosenthal score was missed.

Lincoln was forced to punt on the following possession. The punt hit off a Newbury player’s helmet and was recovered by Lincoln to give them the ball at the Newbury 29-yard line. Lincoln cut the lead to 27-21 after Cam Joy scored on a 3-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.

On the following possession, Newbury lost its third fumble inside Lincoln territory.

Lincoln the ball at Newberry’s 44-yard line. A couple minutes later, Smith Jr. found Joshua Newbern on a 15-yard touchdown pass to tie the game, 27-27. The Newbern touchdown catch initially looked like it was going to be intercepted by Rosenthal, but the ball slipped through his hands and fell into Newbern’s lap as he was laying flat on his back.

Following the Newbern score, Ryder Sheehan blocked the Lincoln point-after to keep the game tied at 27 with a little over two minutes left in the game. Newbury was not able to complete a pass and only burned 12 seconds of clock on the following possession before giving Lincoln the ball back with a little under two minutes left.

Following the Miller-Thompson score to clinch the game for Lincoln, Smigiel completed two passes to Rosenthal on the final drive, but the game ended with Smigiel being tackled at the Lincoln 40-yard line before he could attempt a pass on the final play.

The 2024 season will be one to remember for the Newbury Park football team, finishing 14-1 and winning its second section title in school history. This year’s Panthers team had one of the best seasons in recent memory for a Ventura County public school, capped off with a section title in a loaded Division 2 bracket that many outsiders thought they could not achieve. The road to the Division 2 title included wins over Orange County perennial powers San Clemente and Yorba Linda and was capped off with a title win over a Murrieta Valley team that had one of the largest offensive lines in the state and also a roster that has over 90 players.

Smigiel finished the game 10 of 23 for 214 yards with three touchdown passes and one touchdown run and finished the season with 49 touchdown passes. The Princeton commit Rosenthal finished the game with seven catches for 158 yards and a touchdown. He ended his senior season with 24 touchdown receptions. Rosenthal is also the career leader in receptions in the state of California.

Smith Jr. finished the game 19 of 31 for 287 yards with three touchdown passes and he also ran the ball 14 times for 60 yards and one touchdown. Grant had six catches for 115 yards and a touchdown and Miller-Thompson had seven catches for 84 yards and a touchdown for Lincoln. Lincoln will take on Pittsburg next Friday night in the CIF Division 1-AA State Championship game at Saddleback College