El Toro upsets CdM
LAKE FOREST — A week after tying Corona del Mar High’s single-game touchdown passing record, Chase Garbers couldn’t find the end zone.
He needed only the first half to throw five touchdown passes last week at Dana Hills.
Finding success on the road again was difficult for Garbers. El Toro’s defense gave him fits on Friday night, shutting down the dual-threat junior.
The Sea Kings managed one score, by Garbers’ backup, with 7½ minutes left, but it wasn’t enough for them to stay undefeated.
The Chargers are no longer winless. They held on for a 13-7 nonleague win at home, upsetting the No. 4-ranked team in the CIF Southern Section Southwest Division poll.
El Toro (1-2) disrupted Garbers and CdM’s no-huddle offense by using multiple looks. The Chargers brought a lot of pressure, and when they didn’t, they dropped seven or eight players to defend the pass.
Despite slowing down Garbers, who completed 13 of 27 passes for 100 yards, the Sea Kings had a chance to take the lead midway through the fourth quarter.
Faced with a third-and-six on CdM’s 35-yard line, the Chargers, leading by six, weren’t the ones who stopped Garbers. His foot appeared to get caught in the turf and he went down for a six-yard loss, forcing the Sea Kings to punt with less than five minutes left.
The Chargers went on to run out the final 4:09, mostly on runs by Demarlo Cobbins. The junior rushed 16 times, falling two yards shy of recording 100 yards. Thirty of Cobbins’ yards came on the drive that helped the Chargers avoid their first 0-3 start in seven years.
“We got to stay together,” CdM Coach Dan O’Shea said. “We’re going to be a much better football team next week. We’re a little dinged up. We got to get healthy. We’ll bounce back in good fashion.”
Next for CdM (2-1) is the Battle of the Bay rivalry game against Newport Harbor (2-0) at Orange Coast College. The Sea Kings have won the last two meetings, but the Sailors hold a 38-15 edge in the series.
The Sea Kings might have a question mark at left tackle. O’Shea said Mitch Dean missed the El Toro game with an ankle injury, and Dean’s replacement, Jake Berkey, went down with a knee injury on Friday.
The Sea Kings also hurt themselves at the start. On the opening kickoff, Dylan Tucker let the ball bounce into El Toro’s five-yard line, near the sideline, and he never tried to recover it. The ball appeared on its way out of bounds, until El Toro’s Shane McLaughlin pounced on the ball on the three.
“From the look of it, it was about two yards off the sideline, and I think [Tucker] was hoping it would go out of bounds,” O’Shea said. “That was a big turning point.”
El Toro’s second play from scrimmage saw JShoun Wolfe rush for a one-yard touchdown. Twenty-four seconds into the game and the Chargers led, 7-0.
They had a chance to add to it after CdM turned the ball over on downs on the El Toro 41. But the hosts wound up going for it on fourth down inside CdM’s 40-yard line and lineman Bryce Claybaugh stopped the run two yards shy of the first down.
Unable to do anything, CdM went three-and-out for the first time. The Sea Kings even turned to Peter Bush at quarterback after Garbers threw four straight incomplete passes. Bush misfired as well and CdM punted.
The Chargers went on a 13-play drive and settled for 28-yard field goal. The first of two field goals by Michael Lemus gave El Toro a 10-0 lead late in the first quarter.
Tucker made up for his gaffe. The junior first bobbled the ball on the ensuing kickoff, and then raced toward the CdM sideline for a 38-yard return, setting up the offense on the 47, its best field position on the night.
Starting at midfield didn’t amount to anything for CdM. Garbers did end a stretch of five straight incompletions, hitting wide receiver Billy Shaw for a three-yard pass.
The one pass Garbers wished he had completed was the long one on first down to Bush with 2½ minutes remaining before halftime. The sure-handed Bush dropped the pass in stride inside El Toro’s red zone. A play later, linebacker AJ Aguilar dropped Garbers for a four-yard loss, registering El Toro’s first sack. With a third-and-14 situation on the 36, Garbers went short to Shaw and then Jason Neiger punted for the fourth time in the first half.
The last time CdM was shut out at halftime was six years ago, in the regular-season finale on the road against Beckman. That same 2009 season also marked the last time the Sea Kings failed to score in a game. They avoided the shutout with 7:35 left to go.
After Garbers led CdM into the red zone by completing four of six passes for 44 yards, the offense turned to Bush at quarterback. The senior scored on a 14-yard keeper, helping cut the deficit to 13-7.
The Sea Kings were lucky to be in the contest. Late in the third quarter, El Toro was on it way to taking a 20-point lead. Quarterback Dawit Wilson found Colin Kentros and the senior wideout broke free, until safety Sutton Barbato stripped the ball from Kentros at the one, preventing a 47-yard touchdown. The ball went into the end zone, where cornerback Nick Yi picked it up and returned it out to the 25.
The offense failed to move the ball, something that didn’t happen last week in a 52-14 blowout at Dana Hills.
“We had some guys running free, and it’s just one of those nights where we were unlucky,” O’Shea said. “We were shooting it high. We were shooting it low. We didn’t take advantage of those opportunities when we had man-to-man coverage to make a big play against them.”
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El Toro 13, Corona del Mar 7
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Corona del Mar 0 – 0 – 0 – 7 — 7
El Toro 10 – 0 – 3 – 0 — 13
FIRST QUARTER
ET – Wolfe 1 run (Lemus kick), 11:36.
ET – Lemus 28 FG, :33.
THIRD QUARTER
ET – Lemus 33 FG, 4:15.
FOURTH QUARTER
CdM – Bush 14 run (Neiger kick), 7:35.
INDIVIDUAL RUSHING
CdM – Walker, 10-78.
ET – Cobbins, 16-98.
INDIVIDUAL PASSING
CdM – Garbers, 13-27-0, 100.
ET – Wilson, 16-26-0, 170.
INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING
CdM – Bush, 3-37.
ET – Kentros, 5-72.
