Unbeaten Sea Kings in balance

Patrick Laverty

Pick your poison against the Corona del Mar High football team. Do

you want Tom Welch to beat you with deep passes to his brother,

Kevin, and Shane Collins like he did in the Sea Kings’ season-opening

victory over Costa Mesa? Or do you want Austin Brawner and Wess

Presson to lead a rushing attack that piled up 314 yards on 55

carries in a 22-7 victory over Troy Friday?

“Next week, we’re just going to kick the ball,” Sea Kings Coach

Dick Freeman said with a chuckle, noting the differences between

Corona del Mar’s two victories this season.

But Freeman knows that Corona del Mar (2-0) will not have success

in the Pacific Coast League this season unless it is able to run the

ball and that was the Sea Kings’ goal against Troy, after gaining

just 36 yards in the season opener.

Junior Austin Brawner ran for a career-high 198 yards on 24

carries and scored twice and classmate Wess Presson had 86 yards on

16 carries.

“Troy’s a pretty good football team,” Freeman said. “We did some

pretty good stuff.”

That stuff started up front with an offensive line that opened

holes that a bus could have driven through, Brawner said.

So, after two weeks, if Freeman had to put together a defensive

scheme to play the Sea Kings, what poison would he pick?

“I still think you have to defend the run against us,” Freeman

said. “The passing yardage we got the week before was all long

passes.”

Tom Welch completed just 3 of 7 passes for 59 yards against Troy.

Freeman will be looking for a better combination of rushing and

passing than the Sea Kings have shown in their first two games,

heading into Friday’s Battle of the Bay against Newport Harbor (2-0).

What Freeman probably won’t have at his disposal Friday is

sophomore linebacker Shaun Mohler. He was taken to the hospital

Friday after suffering a slight concussion. He was released Friday

night, but the Sea Kings have a general rule that prevents players

from contact until they are free of symptoms from the concussion for

seven days. Mohler was seen by the CdM trainer on Saturday and was

O.K., but his seven-day window wouldn’t end until Saturday, after the

Newport Harbor game.

* NEWPORT HARBOR: Prior to the season, Coach Jeff Brinkley talked

about the Sailors’ need to play well early on to gain confidence

because so many of his players were young and inexperienced.

Two games into the season, Newport Harbor has a 2-0 record, but

those two victories were achieved in contrasting styles.

After a 35-8 triumph over Trabuco Hills in which the Sailors did

nearly everything right, Marina pushed Newport Harbor to the brink of

defeat before the Sailors prevailed, 10-6.

The close game could actually benefit Newport Harbor in the long

run.

“I think so,” Brinkley said. “I think we didn’t play our best but

we were still able to win the game. Hopefully, we can use it as a

learning experience and we still got out of there with a win.

Sometimes you have to learn from losses.”

Early in the season, the Sailors have avoided losses by avoiding

turnovers and creating them on defense. Through two games, Newport

Harbor has yet to commit at turnover, while creating seven, as well

as blocking one punt.

“That’s real key,” Brinkley said. “With our system, we need to

take care of the football and create turnovers. If you do that, then

you’re going to have a chance.”

The Sailors had plenty of chances against Marina, but couldn’t

score in the first half despite entering the red zone three times.

It’s the deficiency that Newport Harbor will need to work on the most

entering this week’s Battle of the Bay against Corona del Mar.

“We just couldn’t seem to make a play at the right time,” Brinkley

said. “We’d drop a pass, then throw an incompletion, then miss a

block. There wasn’t one specific thing. It was just being a little

out of sync.”

Brinkley and his staff were scrambling to find replacements for

the defensive line prior to the game. Already without defensive end

Peter Hoyt (broken hand), the Sailors were also missing Hoyt’s

backup, Sean Rowe, who was sick and did not attend the game. Brinkley

moved nose guard Austin Nieto to defensive end and put Nick Pfeifer

in at defensive tackle. Kaiona Kalama-Dutro also saw significant

playing time in the interior line.

* COSTA MESA: Some of the most encouraging news for Costa Mesa

High didn’t occur during it’s 33-16 victory over Huntington Beach

Thursday. Rather, it was Corona del Mar’s ability to rack up 314

yards rushing against a quality Troy team, further validating the

Mustangs’ performance against the Sea Kings.

The previous week, the Mustangs had limited CdM to 36 yards

rushing and over two games, they have allowed only 67 yards rushing

on 50 carries, an average of 1.3 yards per carry.

“We’re dominating the line of scrimmage on both sides of the

ball,” Mesa Coach Dave Perkins said. “I think that’s a tribute to our

off-season program.”

There was vast improvement on the offensive line against

Huntington Beach. After allowing six sacks in Week 1, Huntington

Beach never got to quarterback Bruce Wilkinson.

“You play preseason games so that when things go bad, you can go

back and correct those things,” Perkins said.

With time to throw, Wilkinson proved an accurate passer,

particularly in the first half. Before intermission, he completed 7

of 9 passes for 93 yards, providing the balance on offense that

Perkins was hoping for entering the season.

“I think we gave some people a lot to think about by throwing the

ball so well,” Perkins said.

What the Mustangs (1-1) have to think about is avoiding a letdown

against Laguna Beach (3-0), which they play Friday at 7 p.m. Last

season, coming off a Week 2 victory against Chaminade, Costa Mesa was

upset by the Breakers, 14-7.

* ESTANCIA: For the last two seasons, Estancia High has learned

what it’s like to be dominated.

But not many teams can dominate a first half like the Eagles did

Friday against Century.

Estancia ran 43 offensive plays to 11 for Century. The Eagles had

10 first downs, Century zero. Estancia did not commit a turnover, but

created two. Time of possession was in the Eagles favor, 18:53 to

5:07.

But the Eagles led just 19-0, because they were forced to settle

for field goals twice after driving deep into Century territory and

failing to convert on fourth down at the Century 28-yard line.

It’s all part of Craig Fertig’s mantra of teaching the Eagles’

players how to win.

They’ve done so in consecutive weeks for the first time since

2000, but after allowing Century to come back in the second half only

to hold on for victory by stopping a two-point conversion attempt,

the Eagles need to learn to put teams away.

Other than that, the Eagles are making vast amends for the last

two seasons.

While it took Estancia five games to score 47 points last year,

the Eagles have scored 46 in their first two this year. That’s more

than halfway to their 2002 season total of 73.

After two weeks of nonleague play, Estancia is the only remaining

undefeated team in the Golden West League. The Eagles will go for

three wins in a row Friday at 7 p.m. against Katella (1-1) at Glover

Stadium.

* SAGE HILL: Lightning Coach Tom Monarch continued to stress

growth on fundamentals after Sage Hill School fell to 0-2 this

season.

That’s all he can do with a team that starts five freshman.

But the Lightning are entering a portion of their schedule that

should allow them to be more competitive over the next four games.

Friday, Sage Hills travels to Calipatria. Both teams have lost to

Midway Baptist this season, by nearly identical scores.

“We’re two very similar teams,” Monarch said. “We’re two basically

frosh-soph teams. We’re similar in size and speed.”

One of Monarch’s freshmen, linebacker and tight end Don Ayres, is

questionable for Saturday’s game after spraining his ankle Friday.