Sea Kings explode

Barry Faulkner

IRVINE - The Corona del Mar High football team has not only pulled

itself from the canvas after an 0-5 start; it has begun throwing Pacific

Coast League haymakers.

The visiting Sea Kings, known more recently for jabbing their opponents

into submission with a methodical ground attack, exploded with big plays

Friday at Irvine High, defeating University, 31-12, to clinch at least a

share of the PCL crown.

Coach Dick Freeman’s Sea Kings (3-6, 3-0 in league) can capture the

outright league title with a victory Friday over district rival Costa

Mesa at Newport Harbor High.

“We have a piece of the title, but it’s only a little piece,” Freeman

said. “We go for a big piece next week.”

There was nothing piecemeal about the Sea Kings’ 14-0 halftime lead,

which eventually expanded to 24 points, before the Trojans (3-6, 1-2)

made some noise in the final 6:41.

“We finally got some big plays tonight,” said Freeman, who watched his

offense strike from distance, through the air and on the ground, in the

first two periods.

Junior quarterback Evan Burden opened the scoring on the fifth play of

the second quarter, lofting a perfect strike to streaking wideout Jon

Schrank for a 52-yard scoring bomb.

It was the Sea Kings’ longest scoring play of the season, but that

standard didn’t hold up long.

Senior tailback Grant Estabrook broke 69 yards to paydirt with 53 seconds

left in the half and Rory McKeever converted the first of his four PATs

to put the Sea Kings in command.

McKeever padded the margin with a 29-yard field goal after Blake Hacker

blew up a would-be punt attempt hindered by a poor snap at the Uni

25-yard line.

The CdM offense didn’t corner the market on big plays, as the Sea Kings

defense continued to come up huge.

Nick Prosser intercepted a pass in the first quarter and Hacker, Jay

Bottom, Brandon Johnson, David Beser and Elliott Patterson drew the

defensive spotlight before intermission.

CdM, with help from Dave Richardson, Travis Hackett, Scott Biggs, Dave

McArdle, Adam Cooper, Jason Kurtz, Eric Snell and Charlie Alshuler,

extended its opponents’ scoreless streak to nine quarters, and Mike Hayes

rambled 33 yards to give the visitors a 24-0 lead with 9:28 left in the

game.

Uni halved the deficit with a pair of touchdowns within 87 seconds, a

sequence which included a successful onside kickoff.

But CdM’s Matt Gulley foiled a subsequent onside attempt, stepping up to

meet the bouncing boot and sprinting 49 yards for a touchdown to ice

things with 5:11 left.

Estabrook, running behind a line of tight ends Patterson and Cooper,

tackles Sean Fenton and Matt Marsten, guards Johnson and Kurtz and center

Tom Shochat, amassed a career-high 183 yards on 31 carries.

“We’ve just kept pounding and pounding all year long,” said the 6-foot-2,

220-pound workhorse, who also had a 14-yard TD run nullified by a holding

penalty in the closing minutes.

“I have to hand it to our offensive line and our defense played great,”

Estabrook said. “We started 0-5, but we stayed focused and we’re playing

as a team.”

Uni had just 126 yards total offense through three quarters, before

senior quarterback Pat Josten started heating up. He had six of his 11

completions and 102 of his 150 passing yards in the final period to come

within 19 yards of breaking the 27-year-old school single-season passing

record of 1,240 yards.

Jacque Newsome had 109 rushing yards, including a 17-yard TD on an improvised Statue of Liberty play, before Gulley’s kickoff return capped

the Sea Kings’ biggest scoring output of the campaign.