Woodbridge tries to bounce back Friday night with home game against El Modena

Woodbridge Coach Rick Gibson leads his team against Newport Harbor. (Photo Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone)

Woodbridge High’s football team will try to bounce back from a 26-10 loss to Newport Harbor when it hosts El Modena Friday at 7 at University in a week one game.

It will be the opening game of the season for Coach Matt Mitchell’s El Modena team. El Modena was 6-5 last year and defeated Woodbridge 13-7 in the opening week.

“We have to regroup and it’s not going to get any easier with El Modena,” said Woodbridge Coach Rick Gibson after Friday’s loss. “I think we did some good things off the bat. But then we shot ourselves in the foot too.

“Offensively, it was a very poor game. I thought our defense at times played well.”

The defense led the way, led by Carry Rainey, who intercepted a pass and returned it 23 yards for a touchdown. Tommy Prince also had an interception which led to a field goal.

But Woodbridge, which had 11 new starters and no returning starters on offense Friday, was victimized by four turnovers.

“I think we went up 10-7 but you got to put that ball in (after the second interception),” Gibson said. “The defense gives you the ball right there. You got to put it in.”

Woodbridge advanced the ball to the 12-yard line but had to settle for a 29-yard field goal by Jakob Trestik.

The Warriors weren’t able to execute like they had hoped, Gibson said.

“We did not motion when we were supposed to or block the right guy,” he said.

Woodbridge rotated two senior quarterbacks Ethan Assayag and Tate Smith, who struggled most of the night who had not played varsity football before.

“It’s going to take some time, they just need to play through adversity,” Gibson said. “That’s the beauty of sports. You hit the bottom and you got to pick yourself up and go. I hope they will, I think they will, they’re good kids.”

Both quarterbacks will see action on Friday, Gibson said.

“I want to end the pre-season going upward,” Gibson said.

-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportzone.com