Sea Kings big winners again

CORONA DEL MAR — Two games into the 2008 season, and Corona del Mar High has yet to be tested.

The Sea Kings put up a quick 21 points on Laguna Beach Friday at Davidson Field and their defense registered its first shutout of the year in a 37-0 nonleague victory at Newport Harbor High.

Corona del Mar scored on its first two offensive possessions and in between scored on an interception to open up its 21-0 advantage in the opening quarter.

From there, though, Coach Jason Hitchens thought his team went into cruise control.

“We got those first 21 points real quick but the kids cruised a little from that point on,” he said. “We had that one, long drive for a touchdown, which was nice. But I thought we played sloppy and a little inconsistent the rest of the way.”

“It’s nice, though, to be 2-0.”

In two games, Corona del Mar has outscored its opponents, 92-3. And just like last week, when the Sea Kings bolted to a 34-3 halftime lead on Costa Mesa, they had command of Laguna by intermission.

Corona del Mar’s defense stifled Laguna Beach on the Breakers’ first three possessions of the game. After forcing a punt on the opening offensive series of the game, the Sea Kings went to work immediately on offense.

Although J.D. Abbott — who rushed for 204 yards in last week’s 55-3 victory over Costa Mesa — was keyed on and gang tackled for no gain on his first carry, the Sea Kings controlled the line of scrimmage and needed just six plays to cover 49 yards for the game’s initial score. The big play on the drive came when quarterback Mitch Sands hit Max Haase on a slant and Haase turned it into a 22-yard gain down to the Laguna 15-yard line. Sands capped the drive with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Noah Molnar. It was a great catch in the corner of the end zone by Molnar who went up high to snag the pass over Laguna defensive back Jack Monroe. Andrew Boehm’s conversion made it 7-0 with 7:10 left in the quarter.

Three plays after that touchdown, the Sea Kings defense got into the scoring act.

Facing third-and-eight from his own 28, Laguna quarterback Andrew Paddon went back to pass but Haase got right in the senior’s face and forced a quick throw. The ball headed toward three Sea Kings and Will Ham came up with the easy interception and went untouched to the end zone. Boehm’s second PAT made it 14-0 at the 6:11 mark.

Corona del Mar’s defense gave its offense the ball back two minutes later.

Sands then directed a methodical, 10-play, 52-yard march that he completed with a one-yard run on third and goal. Boehmn added the point-after kick as the lead grew to 21-0 with 25 seconds left in the quarter.

That score stood at the half.

“I thought Mitch did a good job of managing the game,” Hitchens said. “He was very steady on that drive at the end of the first quarter.”

Sands and Molnar hooked up again in the third quarter to record the game’s biggest offensive highlight. Sands hit a wide open Molnar down the right sideline on the opening possession of the second half and the senior raced 51 yards to the end zone to pad the lead to 27-0. On Laguna’s first play on its insuring possession, Paddon’s pass was tipped by Tyler Haly and intercepted by Alex Swigert who returned it to the Laguna 12-yard line. The turnover led to a 22-yard field goal by Boehm which mad it 30-0.

Abbott, who rushed for 125 yards on 21 carries, got his final eight on a touchdown run with 10:47 to play.

Sands completed eight of 17 passes for 119 yards with an interception.

The Corona del Mar defense has played shutout ball for seven-plus quarters.

“I thought going into the season that our defense would keep us in football games, and it has,” Hitchens said. That’s two games, now, that we’ve scored on defense. They’ve been playing really well.”

The Sea Kings hit the road next week to face their first stiff test in the Troy Warriors Friday at Fullerton High.

“Troy’s a really good team and is well-coached and we will need to play four solid quarters of football if we want to win that game,” Hitchens said. “We definitely need to clean up the mistakes we made tonight in order to have a chance next week.”