Paul goes out in style
If the season had to come to an end for the Laguna Beach football team last week, then the Breakers went out the right way.
In a wild finale at Guyer Field last Friday — the final prep game for five Laguna seniors — the Breakers outlasted Saddleback, 49-39, in Orange Coast League play.
The win, coupled with last week’s 21-14 victory over Costa Mesa, allowed Laguna to go into the offseason on a two-game win streak. The Breakers will take it, seeing how injuries to several key starters through the season never allowed them to realize their full potential this fall.
Laguna ended its season 2-3 in league play and 3-7 overall.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed in the way the season turned out, but I’m happy that we ended the year with wins over Mesa and Saddleback,” Laguna Coach Jonathan Todd said. “We needed that. If we would have been healthy all the way through, I think things would have turned out differently. But it is, what it is. These two wins gives us a little momentum.”
The Saddleback game was the final game in a Laguna uniform for quarterback Austin Paxson, receiver/defensive back/kick returner Chris Paul, running back Mike Hyden, who rushed for 37 yards, and offensive lineman/linebacker Taylor Preston. Two-way lineman Ben Hanson was sidelined with a knee injury.
Paul went out in style. He caught five touchdown passes — covering 18, seven, 21, 36 and 53 yards — four from Paxson and his final one from sophomore quarterback Larry Stewart. Those touchdown catches allowed Paul to set a new Orange County record for career touchdown receptions (42). He also tied his own school record of five touchdown receptions in a game and set a school record for points scored in a game (30).
Paul finished with eight receptions for 191 yards for the night, the fourth highest in a game by a Laguna receiver.
Paxson threw for 277 yards on 16 of 23 passing and also threw a 47-yard TD pass to sophomore Robert Clemons. His five touchdown passes also tied his school record and he equaled the school mark for point-after kicks (seven) in a game.
Clemons, a sophomore, also scored on a — “ridiculous,” Todd said — 80-yard run in the third quarter as quarterback in the Wildcat formation.
He had 113 yards on six receptions and rushed for 99 yards on three attempts.
“That was one of the better runs we’ve had all year,” Todd said. “He was all over the field on that play. He zigzagged back-and-forth and must have run a total of 140 yards. It was amazing. He’s only a sophomore and is going to be really, really good.
“And what can you say about Austin and Chris? It’s become typical of them to have such big games. To go out with four touchdown passes between them is great. I thought all of our seniors went out in a great way.”
The game had several other superlatives, as well. The Breakers set a school record with six touchdown passes in a game, tied the school record for first downs in a game (23) and the 88 total points between the teams is the sixth-highest in school history.
Saddleback’s leading rusher, Luis Soto, also went into the Cal-Hi Sports state record books by carrying the ball 71 times for 484 yards and five touchdowns. The previous record was 57 carries and Soto’s mark missed the national record by one carry, according to ESPN Rise.
“Saddleback did a good job of controlling the clock,” Todd said. They’d run Soto for three yards here and there, pick up a first down and hold the ball. It was a tough game for our defense.”