Seahawks remain undefeated
The Newport Mesa Seahawks Pee Wee White Team beat the Huntington Beach Oilers, 30-0, at Sage Hill School.
Tough defense was played by all the Seahawks. Big tackles were made by first-year players Will Gehl, Jake Jones and Mitch Haly. Defenders Blake Kormos, Kobe Benter and Sutton Barbato stopped the Oilers’ running backs, often in their own backfield. When the Oilers tried to pass, Seahawk cornerbacks Stephen Menzia and Carson Poivre denied their receivers the ball, with Poivre grabbing an interception.
On offense, Danny Rogers, Will Karambelas, Berkley Bingham and Connor Brazeel opened huge holes all day for fullback Jack Genova and tailback Anthony Battista to run through. Battista had two touchdowns.
As for the air attack, quarterback Chase Garbers had his best day. Garbers completed several well-thrown passes, most notably a touchdown to tight end Nick Bauer and a perfectly timed chair pattern to speedy wingback Adam Freeman, who made a great catch on the play. Garbers also ran a long bootleg for another touchdown.
Special teams coach Tony Battista’s excellent instruction showed through in the kicking game.
Genova placed a perfect onside kick that was recovered by sure handed Bauer to give the Seahawks great field position, that led to a score.
Poivre, the kicker had six points, making three two-point conversions after touchdowns.
Injured player Jonathon White was supportive from the sidelines, and is looking forward to being back in action very soon.
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Clinic team dominates
For the second straight week, the Newport Mesa Seahawks Clinic Team (ages 9-10) played aggressively as a team resulting in a dominating victory over the Downey Mustangs.
Quarterback Spencer Hook had a day to remember with seven touchdowns — five rushing and two passing.
Behind outstanding blocking by Simon Hall, Brian Bailey, Devon Yerasi, Jacob Farber and Logan Rockwell, Hook amassed big-time yardage on the ground, breaking off three runs of over 60 yards each.
In addition, Hook connected on several passes, with two touchdown passes to Sachin Gokhale. The first, Gokhale caught a 25-yard pass at full speed and sprinted another 40 yards for the score.
The second TD strike was another 25-yard pass to the back of the end zone, where Gokhale made an acrobatic jumping catch.
Defensively, the Seahawks created havoc with Parker Ruiz (three sacks), Tahlal Benhamed (three sacks) and Hook (seven tackles for loss yardage).
Additonally, linebacker Nick Meisenheimer had a monster game, making numerous tackles. Collin Gregg, Micah Kelly and Luke Pallazzo played well in pass defense, with excellent open field tackles.
The Seahawks are 2-2 and head into a showdown with the Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits at Sage Hill School Saturday at 1 p.m.
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Blue team blanks Aztecs
Defense was the key in the Newport Mesa Jr. All American Pee Wee Blue 21-0 victory over the Southgate Aztecs on Friday.
Nick DeKeyzer, Conner Bass, JP Van de Voorde and Riad Benahmed all had key tackles. Nick Yee completed an open field stop on fourth down, while Brandon Fryer broke up a possible touchdown pass.
On their first possession, the Seahawks moved with ball well with running backs Nick Yi and Chris Rybus gaining multiple first downs before quarterback Stephen Von Der Ahe ran one in from the 25.
Jason Simaan had a 30-yard return followed by a 24-yard reception by William Hunter.
After dropping the shotgun snap, Von Der Ahe then scrambled for a 12-yard touchdown run thanks to blocking from Max Duncan, Simaan and Hunter.
Key receptions were also made by Jacob Fisher on a 24-yard grab and a 27-yard touchdown pass to Vik Ghadi.
The linemen, Michael Brown, Jack Beeker, Max Peterson and Caden Gruber held the Aztecs on their final drive allowing Max Morin to intercept the last pass of the game.
— Reader submission