Football Player of the Week: Younger Laurent wears many hats for Eagles
The Estancia High football team has four sets of brothers. The Laurents, the Browns, the O’Dalys and the Barrioses make up 21% of the 42-man roster.
Out of the siblings, none are as competitive as the Laurents. Dylan Laurent is 16, two years younger than Christian is, but he doesn’t back down from his older brother.
The two try to beat each other in practically everything they do. Who can eat cereal the fastest? Who can win in a game of Madden NFL 15? Those two questions are up for discussion.
What’s not is which Laurent has won the Eagles’ starting job at tailback. Coach Mike Bargas planned to start Dylan on the road against Pacifica on Thursday, a week after his stellar all-around performance, but he went with Christian.
Dylan doesn’t mind. He doesn’t see himself as only a running back.
“I love being all around the ball,” said Dylan, who before the season expected to see more time at wide receiver. “I love catching the ball, running the ball, deflecting the ball, whatever I can do to get it.”
Last week’s opener saw Dylan touch the ball in many facets of the Eagles’ 48-20 win against Loara. At running back, he rushed nine times for 91 yards and two touchdowns. He returned a punt 55 yards for a touchdown. At cornerback, he intercepted a pass, broke up another he almost picked off, and made four tackles. He hauled in one pass for 22 yards. He also returned two kickoffs for 48 yards.
For a sophomore, Dylan is doing it all. Without a wince, Bargas has turned to the 5-foot-8, 150-pounder to make plays. He delivered last year as a freshman cornerback, earning first-team All-Orange Coast League honors.
This year, Bargas has asked for more production out of Dylan. Right away, he inserted Dylan in the backfield in the first game. He filled in for his brother, who aggravated a right ankle injury from a year ago.
Christian went into the game not feeling well, attributing it to nerves from playing his first game of his senior year. Christian had thrown up earlier against Loara.
He wasn’t finished puking. In the third quarter, with the Eagles in the red zone, Christian ran off the field, believing he had scored a touchdown. He needed to vomit again, and found a spot near a building, to the left of the end zone, away from the field, so he could hide from fans.
The problem was Bargas, his staff and his players couldn’t see Christian either. Christian buried his head in a trash can, not knowing that a penalty called his touchdown back. With only 10 Estancia players on the field for the next play, Bargas burned a timeout.
Christian wasn’t the only person feeling sick. Bargas wasn’t happy about not having 11 players on offense.
“Who’s missing, Christian?” Bargas said on the headset, hoping the coaches wearing headsets in the press box could locate Christian. “We couldn’t find him.”
Dylan had no idea where his brother went. All he heard was “Laurent!” and he ran to the coaches to see what Laurent the Eagles wanted. Dylan was the only one around.
Dylan was more than capable to take over. He ran onto the field, and rushed for a 16-yard touchdown with 2:38 left in the third quarter. The score marked Dylan’s third and final of the evening at Jim Scott Stadium.
It was a long, taxing night for Dylan. One play gave him an asthma attack. The play resulted in his longest touchdown, a 61-yard run. On the sideline, he used his inhaler. Two puffs and putting his arms over his head helped Dylan recover. He didn’t go missing like his brother.
“That was a first for me,” Bargas said, referring to having a player disappear during a game without informing coaches or teammates of an injury or illness.
Christian apologized to Bargas for not telling him where he planned to go. The two can joke about it now.
Bargas disciplined Christian during the game. While Christian wound up with the most touches (28) and yards (166) on the ground, he failed to find the end zone against Loara. Bargas did it by design, taking Christian out in favor of sophomores Jordan Balcazar and Julian Barrios, who each rushed for a one-yard score in the fourth quarter.
Afterward, at home before bedtime, the Laurents talked about the game a little bit. Christian limped around, a sign that Dylan might be starting at tailback for the Eagles.
“He told me I did a good job,” Dylan said of his brother. “I told him he had a good game. He had [a lot of] yards. He just didn’t get any of the glory.”
It’s not as if Dylan is keeping score on which Laurent recorded the most touchdowns in the opener.
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Dylan Laurent
Born: Jan. 3, 1998
Hometown: Corona
Height: 5-foot-8
Weight: 150 pounds
Sport: Football
Year: Sophomore
Coach: Mike Bargas
Favorite food: Tacos
Favorite movie: “Elf”
Favorite athletic moment: “My first pick six last year against Ocean View.”
Week in review: Laurent rushed nine times for 91 yards and two touchdowns, returned a punt 55 yards for a touchdown, and intercepted a pass in the Eagles’ 48-20 season-opening win against Loara.