Two-Minute Drill: Sea Kings in charge
Corona del Mar High owns the Back Bay for the second straight year.
The Sea Kings prevailed against host Newport Harbor, 28-18, in the 53rd meeting between the two schools last Friday at Davidson Field. For the first time since 1985-88, CdM has beaten the Sailors in consecutive seasons.
“Hopefully the programs continue to get better and better each year,” CdM Coach Scott Meyer said. “Newport Harbor’s a great program and this is a great high school game.”
The Battle of the Bay rivalry began in 1963, and Newport Harbor has dominated the series, going 38-15.
The way CdM is piling up wins its drawing closer to the Sailors.
The Sea Kings have won 30 games in a row, currently the best winning streak in the state. The run ties the 10th longest in CIF Southern Section history. Norco won 30 straight from 1992-94.
The Sea Kings (4-0) can match the section’s ninth longest winning streak with a victory at Tesoro (3-1) on Friday at 7 p.m. They will face a former teammate, tailback Anthony Battista, who last year helped the Sea Kings win a third straight CIF Southern Section Southern Division title and their first CIF State Division III Bowl Game.
Battista transferred to Tesoro in the offseason.
“It’ll be fun,” Meyer said of seeing Battista, who rushed for 1,052 yards and 10 touchdowns as a sophomore last season for CdM. “He’s a good running back. I’m sure our defense is going to be anxious for the challenge to see what we can do against him.”
— David Carrillo Peñaloza
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•The Costa Mesa High football team fell to 0-4 with Thursday night’s 36-16 loss to Los Amigos at Jim Scott Stadium.
But for many of the Mustangs, a fun night occurred the night before at Fashion Island. Former USC and NFL quarterback Matt Leinart was on hand at Dick’s Sporting Goods, to present special spirit packs to the Costa Mesa players who earned a 3.0 grade-point average or higher.
The gear was pink, in honor of breast cancer awareness.
Among the Costa Mesa football scholar-athletes honored included Jesus Bravo, Jonathan Brucales, Eric Carrasco, Elijah Collado, Cameron Curet, Darmonta Davis, Michael Dias, Hadley Figueroa-Bravo, Andrew Garcia, Adam JeyaRajah, Helper Kisino, Cody Merrifield, Adrien Plancarte, Jose Ramirez, Josh Snipes, Daniel Suarez, Sammy Swanson, Eddie Vargas and Christian Villaverde.
More than half of the varsity squad came into the season with a 3.0 GPA or higher from last year. Last year, the Mustangs started an Academic Incentives and Tutoring Program for their football student-athletes.
— Matt Szabo
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•Quarterback Peter Bush didn’t have to do most of the running for the Sea Kings for the second straight week.
Jaydin Moses filled in quite nicely for injured tailback Cole Martin, whom the team expects to miss at least three more weeks with a right sprained knee.
Moses, a sophomore, made his first varsity start, and on his first carry, he almost went for a long touchdown. A defender took Moses down one-yard shy of the end zone, leaving him with a 63-yard run.
Moses would eventually score, on a one-yard run in the third quarter and on a 21-yard run in the fourth quarter. He finished with 20 carries for 184 yards, and both of CdM’s second-half touchdowns.
“Jaydin’s so mature for his age,” said Bush, who was able to focus mostly on airing the ball out, completing 11 of 17 passes for 126 yards and one touchdown, while only rushing 10 times for 25 yards. “He came in not even thinking twice [about his first start coming in the Battle of the Bay]. I’m so proud of him. He really stepped into [Martin’s] shoes and did more than we ever could’ve asked of him.”
— David Carrillo Peñaloza
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•The Sea Kings are an astounding 44-4 since Meyer took over as coach in 2011. Their last setback was on Sept. 21, 2012 at Capistrano Valley.
The team’s other three losses have come against Newport Harbor in 2012 and 2011, and Beckman in 2011.
— David Carrillo Peñaloza
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•Newport Harbor High can say it has scored the most points on CdM this season.
The Sailors posted 18 points, just not enough to win the Battle of the Bay in front of a sold-out crowd of 5,000 at Davidson Field last Friday. Newport Harbor lost to CdM, 28-18, making it two straight setbacks to its archrival.
“We just couldn’t get that other score in to put us into that one-score-down routine,” said Brinkley, referring to most of the fourth quarter, when the Sailors trailed by 10 points.
“I like the way our kids competed. I think they played, you know, for four quarters, and if we can play that way the rest of the year, then we might have a chance to win a game somewhere along the line.”
Newport Harbor (1-2) looks to get back on track at home on Friday at 7 p.m., when it plays San Clemente (4-0). The opponent will be the second undefeated one from the CIF Southern Section Southwest Division the Sailors will see in as many weeks.
The top-ranked team in the Southwest Division limited the Sailors to a season-low 18 points. The Sea Kings pressured quarterback Cole Norris all evening, sacking him five times and forcing him to fumble once. Up next is San Clemente, ranked No. 2.
— David Carrillo Peñaloza
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•Norris was the second Northern Arizona quarterback commit to play against CdM this year. He performed a lot better than his future college teammate, Dana Hills’ Cole Wilber.
Norris completed 16 of 23 passes for 201 yards and two touchdowns. The senior is 272 yards away from breaking Newport Harbor’s all-time passing yards mark of 5,364 held by Shane Foley.
“I thought Norris under a lot of pressure threw the ball well, and, you know, for the most part, we caught it pretty well,” said Brinkley, whose quarterback for the season is 51 of 74 passing for 671 yards and nine touchdowns, with only one interception.
“[The Sea Kings] did a really good job [on the defensive line]. At that point, you know, they just pinned their ears back and come after you. They know you’re going to throw the ball. We got some young guys up front. Four of them are underclassmen, so hopefully this is a learning experience for them.”
— David Carrillo Peñaloza
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•Brinkley, in his 29th year in charge of the Sailors, turns 62 on Sunday.
Brinkley is one victory away from his 230th with Newport Harbor. Brinkley ranks fifth in wins in the history of Orange County coaches. His overall record at Newport Harbor is 229-107-3.
Brinkley dropped to 20-10 against CdM.
— David Carrillo Peñaloza
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•Costa Mesa missed its junior running back/middle linebacker Mason Mataafa, who sat out the Los Amigos loss due to a concussion. The Mustangs missed their leading tackler most notably on defense, as Los Amigos running back Moby Contreras ran for 304 yards and four touchdowns.
On offense, Mesa was able to effectively run the ball with Cameron Curet, Michael Dias and Josh Snipes, who each had at least 80 yards rushing. The carries were handled fairly evenly, with each back getting at least 16 of them.
Dias had 17 carries for 118 yards, while Snipes had 16 carries for 101 yards. Curet had 20 carries for 84 yards and a touchdown, which came on the opening drive of the game.
“I thought Cameron and Dias and Snipes did a heck of a job being a three-headed prong attack,” Coach Wally Grant said. “More important than that, our ‘big’uns’ up front are finally starting to get some push.”
Grant highlighted the play of senior Adam JeyaRajah, as well as juniors Francisco Hernandez and Neru Fesili, on the line.
“We’re starting to figure it out,” Grant said.
— Matt Szabo
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*A quick start was exactly what the Sage Hill School football team needed in Friday night’s 38-12 home win over Escondido Charter.
The Lightning (2-2) scored two touchdowns in the first 35 seconds, after Vince Wetmore opened the game with a 94-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and Miles McCord recovered a pooch kick. Two plays later, it was Miles’ older brother, senior quarterback CJ McCord, finding Jake Fisher on a six-yard deflected touchdown pass.
“We couldn’t afford to get off to another slow start, so we kind of drilled them all week that we would come out fast, come our hard,” interim Coach Tom Kirchmeyer said. “A kickoff return for a touchdown was the icing on the cake ... [and] we noticed on film that their [kickoff] alignment was something that we could take advantage of. We wanted to surprise them after our first touchdown, and it worked perfectly.”
— Matt Szabo
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•CJ McCord worked nearly perfectly as well, picking apart the Escondido Charter defense for 220 yards passing and four touchdowns. On defense, he also recorded his first two career interceptions.
McCord said the White Tigers were keying on Wetmore early, so he connected with Fisher early and often.
Fisher had four catches for 60 yards midway through the first quarter, before any other Sage player had registered a reception, though the deflected touchdown was intended for Wetmore. Fisher ended up with 10 catches for 96 yards and two touchdowns, while Wetmore had five catches for 82 yards and a touchdown.
“Most of the teams key on Vince, so Jake was there,” McCord said. “He has reliable hands and he’s a big target.”
— Matt Szabo
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•CJ McCord has a busy October planned. His father, Keith, said that CJ will take official college visits on each weekend of the month, to Stanford, Yale, Dartmouth and Cornell, respectively.
CJ McCord is being recruited for track and field at Stanford, while at the Ivy League schools he could play football and compete in track and field. Last spring, McCord was the CIF state runner-up in the high jump.
CJ has a 4.2 grade-point average at Sage Hill.
*The Lightning were penalty-bitten against Escondido Charter, committing 10 penalties for 115 yards. Kirchmeyer said part of the problem was that his team was missing its starting right guard, sophomore Dan Levy, leading to a number of penalties on the offensive line.
“There’s definitely things we’ve got to clean up,” Kirchmeyer said. “We can’t blame anyone else but ourselves for those penalties.”
— Matt Szabo