Breakers look for rare playoff win
The Laguna Beach High football team travels to Glover Stadium to take on Anaheim in a CIF Southern Section Southern Division first-round game at 7 p.m. Friday.
Laguna is making its first postseason appearance since back-to-back trips in 2008 and 2009. The Breakers last won a first-round game in 2008, which was only the second playoff win for the program since 1989. They will be playing Anaheim for the first time in decades: the schools last met in 1948 in a game also played at Glover Stadium.
“I’m real happy with our draw,” said Mike Churchill, who is taking the Breakers to the playoffs in his first year as head coach. “One of the reasons I’m happy about it is that we’re playing Anaheim, which has a great football tradition. It’s also one of the few Orange County schools older than us. We’re glad to be in the playoffs.”
Anaheim (6-4) shared the Orange League championship with Santa Ana Valley. The Colonists bring a four-game win streak into Friday’s game.
“They have a really good defense,” Churchill said of the Colonists. “They run to the ball and do the things a team needs to do defensively. I’m impressed by them.”
Offensively, the Colonists have been shut out twice this year in nonleague losses to Fullerton and Loara. They are led by senior quarterback Anthony Covarrubias, who has rushed for 547 yards and scored 12 touchdowns.
Laguna is 8-2 and posted the program’s first eight-win season since the 1987 team went 10-2. The Breakers finished in third place in the Orange Coast League behind champion Estancia and Costa Mesa. They ended regular-season play Nov. 12 by crushing Saddleback, 56-3.
In the lopsided win, junior running back Drake Martinez had just five touches but blazed his way for 128 yards, scoring on runs of two, 65 and 35 yards. Robert Clemons rushed just three times but galloped for 112 yards, 80 of which came on a touchdown run in the second quarter that put the Breakers up, 21-3. The run came one play after Clemons gave the Breakers the ball back on an interception. He also came up with a second interception just before halftime.
Norton Penney, Alec Jaffe and Nathan Lancaster also rushed for touchdowns and quarterback Larry Stewart threw an 18-yard scoring pass to Travis Clawson. The pass was only the second throw by Stewart all night. Defensively, Lancaster also recovered a fumble.
Martinez has rushed for 1,345 yards and has 1,535 total yards in 10 games. Penney needs just 65 yards to reach 1,000 yards rushing and currently has 1,111 total yards. Clemons (667 rushing) has 917 yards of offense and Stewart has passed for 1,073 yards, with 14 touchdowns and just three interceptions.
Twitter: @MikeSciacca