Sea Kings dominate

IRVINE — After putting up big numbers on the field, Dillon Norton showed off the numbers under his eyes.

Under his right eye in the eye black read the date of his birth, “10-31-90.” Under the left eye, it said “10-31-08.”

It was quite an 18th birthday present indeed that the Corona del Mar High senior gave himself and the Sea Kings on Friday night. Norton scored three touchdowns, had an interception and a long punt return as the Sea Kings cruised by University, 49-7, in the Pacific Coast League game at Irvine High.

“You couldn’t ask for more,” said Norton, who had 118 yards receiving and caught two of senior quarterback Mitch Sands’ four touchdown passes. He also scored on a 15-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.

“It’s definitely a good birthday. It’s a good way to celebrate becoming an adult, for sure.”

The Sea Kings (7-2, 2-1 in league) appreciated the effort. They head into next week’s bye in second place in league, and they can guarantee themselves a finish at least that high if they beat Beckman in their regular-season finale on Nov. 14.

It looked easy against University (4-4, 0-2), which has now lost four straight. CdM, ranked No. 5 in the CIF Southern Section Southern Division poll, got it going early on Norton’s 62-yard punt return midway through the first quarter.

A play later, he dove to catch Sands’ touchdown pass down the middle to give CdM the early lead.

The Sea Kings culminated an 80-yard drive early in the second quarter on J.D. Abbott’s seven-yard touchdown scamper, then kept it going with more big plays.

Sands’ 15-yard shovel pass to Abbott put CdM up 21-0 with 55 seconds left in the half, then Abbott intercepted a wobbly University pass and brought it back to the Trojans’ 46-yard line.

On the next play, Sands found Norton slanting over the middle, and a big block downfield by fellow receiver Noah Molnar helped the long touchdown play develop.

Suddenly, the Sea Kings were up four touchdowns at halftime, and the rout was on.

Sands, who finished with 280 yards passing, gave the credit to Sea Kings’ offensive linemen, including Will Ham, Brad Dupuie, Riley Conroy, Grant Keligian and Ben Noe.

“I was just trying to make plays,” Sands said. “I had a lot of protection tonight, which makes it easy to make plays.”

Corona del Mar Coach Jason Hitchens, who saw his team put up 49 or more points for the third time this season, was also impressed.

“It did seem like we were pretty efficient with what we were doing,” Hitchens said. “Mitch did a really good job of managing the football game, which is what we asked him to do, and we’ve actually asked him to do a little bit more the last few games. He’s responded very well to that.”

Senior Max Haase added a second-half touchdown catch for the Sea Kings, and senior Andrew Hicks also intercepted a pass.

University Coach Mark Cunningham also gave credit to the offensive line of the Sea Kings.

“They’re not very big, but they’re tough and they play hard,” Cunningham said.

CORONA DEL MAR 49, UNIVERSITY 7

SCORE BY QUARTERS

CdM 7-21-14-7--49

Uni 0-0-7-0--7

FIRST QUARTER

CdM – Norton 27 pass from Sands (Boehm kick), 8:35.

SECOND QUARTER

CdM – Abbott 7 run (Boehm kick), 11:03.

CdM – Abbott 15 pass from Sands (Boehm kick), 0:55.

CdM – Norton 46 pass from Sands (Boehm kick), 0:22.

THIRD QUARTER

Uni – Cook 14 pass from Martin (Luecke kick), 8:10.

CdM – Haase 5 pass from Sands (Boehm kick), 5:53.

CdM – Abbott 9 run (Boehm kick), 2:24.

FOURTH QUARTER

CdM – Norton 15 run (Boehm kick), 9:31.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

CdM – Abbott, 11-56, 2 TDs; Swigert, 7-48; Norton, 3-41, 1 TD; Lamons, 1-21; Sands, 4-8; Condino, 3-7; Molnar, 1-7; Borchard, 1-minus-5.

Uni – Hout, 4-21; E. Martin, 4-17; J. Martin, 4-14; Fletcher, 7-12; Galvez, 3-9; Cook, 3-7; Sedighravesh, 1-7; Houghton, 1-2.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

CdM – Sands, 14-20-0, 280, 4 TDs.

Uni – E. Martin, 11-21-3, 146, 1 TD.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

CdM – Norton, 4-118, 1 TD; Haase, 5-86, 1 TD; Abbott, 3-50, 1 TD; Swigert, 1-23; Hicks, 1-3.

Uni – Taylor, 5-58; Cook, 2-39, 1 TD; Smith, 2-33; Fletcher, 2-16.