Trojans bully CdM

NEWPORT BEACH — The very nature of the game calls for push to come to shove in a football season. For Corona del Mar High, the failure to push back appears to have rendered the Sea Kings unworthy of CIF Southern Section playoff contention.

CdM, ranked in the Southern Division top 10 all season, and sitting at No. 7 heading into Friday’s Pacific Coast League home game against unranked University at Newport Harbor High, will likely not be among the 16 teams in the division to extend their campaign into the postseason.

If not already apparent after back-to-back shutout losses to open league play, a 17-6 setback to the Trojans (3-5, 1-2 in league) shoved that notion to the forefront.

But it was the Trojans’ ability to push the Sea Kings around up front that helped provide an exclamation point to a reality CdM Coach Jason Hitchens has known all along.

“There hasn’t been a push up front all year long,” Hitchens said of his offensive line’s inability to prevent the Sea Kings (4-4, 0-3) from punting 10 times. “It’s exposed against teams like Newport Harbor, Laguna Hills and Irvine [all CdM losses]. Our offensive line is just not getting the job done and it really limits you in terms of what you can or can’t do offensively.”

What the Sea Kings couldn’t do submerged what they could do, as they produced just three first downs. They went three-and-out 10 times and had three other possessions end with lost fumbles. CdM failed to make yardage on 12 rushing attempts.

The Sea Kings had only two plays that produced more than 10 yards, and both of those came in a three-play span to end the first half.

Aside from a seven-play scoring drive that began at the University 20-yard line after sophomore safety Matt English recovered a Uni fumble, CdM took just three offensive snaps on the Trojans’ side of midfield.

Still, CdM stayed in the game until the final moments, thanks to a swarming defense led by senior inside linebacker Alex Swigert. Swigert, an All-CIF performer last season, had half of the hosts’ four sacks, made four additional tackles for losses, and had a third sack negated when a seemingly obvious intentional grounding call was ignored, resulting in an incomplete pass.

“He is a great player,” Uni Coach Mark Cunningham said of Swigert. “He just brings the heat and we couldn’t do anything about it. We even had to put a different guard in. That guy just blew us up. He’s something else.”

The Sea Kings held Uni to 139 yards of total offense and a meager six first downs. English also returned an interception 16 yards to set his offense up at the University 44-yard line late in the third quarter with CdM trailing, 14-6.

But the Sea Kings fumbled the ball away on the next snap, deflating what was suddenly a revved-up crowd.

“That, in a nutshell, would probably epitomize our season,” Hitchens said of the immediate reversal of momentum created by the aforementioned lost fumble.

CdM never got past its own 17-yard line on its four subsequent possessions.

Uni cashed in its final turnover, yet another CdM fumble recovered at the Sea Kings’ eight-yard line with a 22-yard field goal by Kiran Luecke with 2:22 left to add insurance.

CdM, playing once again without senior tailback J.D. Abbott (ankle), produced just 93 offensive yards, including 54 on the ground in 34 attempts.

“We did a pretty good job defensively and I was really proud of how hard our kids played,” Cunningham said. “But it makes a big difference for [the Sea Kings] not having Abbott.”

Linebackers Aaron White, Bret Klein, and Justin Tam, safeties Austin Jones and English, as well as corners Cole Cottrell and Clay Reinhardt also sparkled defensively for the Sea Kings.

Punter John Christian was another highlight, averaging 40.2 yards on 10 boots.

The victory snapped a six-game losing PCL losing streak for Uni.

“It’s a win I’m, very happy with,” Cunningham said.

University 17, Corona del Mar 6

SCORE BY QUARTERS

University 7-7-0-3--17

Corona del Mar 0-0-6-0--6

FIRST QUARTER

Uni – Kemp 15 run (Luecke kick), 3:17.

SECOND QUARTER

Uni – Ogunsanya 5 pass from Joppi (Luecke kick), 0:27.

THIRD QUARTER

CdM – Swigert 1 run (kick blocked), 4:30.

FOURTH QUARTER

Uni – Luecke 22 FG, 2:22.

INDIVIDUAL RUSHING

Uni –Kemp, 17-54, 1 TD; Emery, 5-27; Houghton, 2-7; Joppi, 7-4; Svrcek, 3-minus 2.

CdM – Borchard, 11-28; Reinhardt, 5-28; Condino, 8-11; Swigert, 3-6, 1 TD; Gardner, 6-minus 6; Team, 1-minus 13.

INDIVIDUAL PASSING

Uni – Joppi, 8-15-0, 49, 1 TD; Emery, 0-3-1.

CdM – Borchard, 3-9-0, 28; Gardner, 1-2-0, 1.

INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING

Uni – Ogunsanya, 4-14, 1 TD; Stanek, 2-14; Kemp, 1-11; Leucke, 1-10.

CdM – English, 2-22; Swigert, 1-6; Tam, 1-1.