Two-Minute Drill: CdM ready for playoffs
Corona del Mar High heads into the CIF Southern Section Southwest Division playoffs on a roll.
The Sea Kings trounced Irvine, 58-13, at Jim Scott Stadium on Thursday, completing their fourth consecutive undefeated Pacific Coast League title. In the final four weeks of the regular season, CdM averaged 50 points per game.
The Sea Kings (8-2, 5-0 in league), ranked No. 3 in the Southwest Division poll, expect a No. 3 seed in the playoffs. They will learn of their seed and first-round opponent on Sunday at noon, when the section plans to release the Southwest Division playoff bracket.
“There was a big separation between us and Valencia,” CdM Coach Dan O’Shea said, believing his Sea Kings will be the third-seeded team over a 10-0 Valencia team, which was ranked No. 4 this week.
The Sea Kings earned the top seed last year in their debut season in the Southwest Division. They hope to make a deeper run than a year ago, when the Sea Kings lost in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Trabuco Hills, 28-10, ending a 15-game playoff winning streak.
If CdM starts another successful run in the postseason, it will have to do it without two key linemen.
O’Shea said the team lost right tackle Jake Berkey to a knee injury last game, and CdM won’t have defensive tackle Joe Anderson available. Anderson must sit out the playoff opener because he was tossed from the Irvine game.
“It is ridiculous what went on,” O’Shea said. “The other guy blew [Berkey’s] knee out [during the extra-point kick that gave us a 28-0 lead late in the first quarter]. So we lost a guy to an ACL [injury], too, on a cheap shot.”
— David Carrillo Peñaloza
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•Chase Garbers and Peter Bush are putting up record-breaking numbers for CdM.
Garbers set the CdM single-season record for touchdown passes with 28. The junior quarterback broke Brent Lawson’s 2011 mark of 27 by throwing five touchdowns against Irvine.
All five of Garbers’ touchdowns went to Bush, whose 13 touchdown catches rank No. 1 for a single season at CdM. Bush surpassed George Sumner’s record of 11. The five touchdown receptions by Bush also matched a CdM single-game record that Sumner established in 1996.
“We don’t play for records,” said O’Shea, whose program has won three section titles in the past four years. “We’re trying to execute and get ready for the playoffs. We’re not where we want to be as a football team.
“We have a lot of work to do next week to get prepared for an extremely competitive Southwest Division.”
More games, means more of Garbers-to-Bush. The two have a special thing going on this year.
They are coming off their best outings of the season. Garbers was a perfect 23 of 23 passing, finishing with a career-best 335 yards, while Bush caught eight passes for 149 yards.
Garbers is on his way to taking down two more CdM single-season passing records. Luke Napolitano is the passing yards (2,645) and completions (197) leader, but Garbers is 301 yards and two completions away from overtaking Napolitano in both categories.
Bush, who has 55 catches for 823 yards, is closing in on the CdM single-season record for receptions (60) and receiving yards (1,000).
“We’re throwing it well,” said O’Shea, who has only seen Garbers throw two interceptions all season.
— David Carrillo Peñaloza
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•Newport Harbor does not expect to receive an at-large berth into the CIF Southern Section West Valley Division playoffs after Friday night’s 27-17 loss to Edison at Davidson Field.
The Sailors finished the regular season 4-6, and 2-3 in the Sunset League. They were alone in fourth place in league. The Chargers clinched the outright league title, with Fountain Valley and Los Alamitos finishing second and third in league and also locking up guaranteed playoff berths.
Newport Harbor has only missed the playoffs six times in Coach Jeff Brinkley’s previous 29 years at the helm. The other times the Sailors missed the postseason were 1986, 1988, 1995, 1998, 2006 and 2008.
Brinkley said injuries were one thing that characterized the Sailors’ season. On Friday night, they played without their starting kicker, Riley Blake, who Brinkley said had surgery on his knee last year and recently aggravated the injury.
Victor Negrete, a goalie for the Sailors soccer team, stepped in and made a 28-yard field goal as well as two extra-point kicks.
“We’ve had so many guys hurt, it’s been a revolving door, with a lot of people having to go in and play right down to the kicker tonight,” Brinkley said. “Negrete probably never thought that he was going to be kicking for us.”
— Matt Szabo
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•Estancia’s run of six straight CIF Southern Section Southern Division playoff appearances is most likely over.
The Eagles lost the third-place battle in the Orange Coast League to Saddleback, 17-10, at Santa Ana Stadium on Friday. The Roadrunners clinched the league’s third-and-final guaranteed postseason berth, finishing 3-2 in league.
Calvary Chapel claimed first at 5-0, ahead of 4-1 Godinez. Estancia (2-3 in league) lost to each of the top three programs, its league wins coming against Costa Mesa (1-4) and Laguna Beach (0-5), the fifth- and sixth-place teams.
The fourth-place finish is Estancia’s worst in the league since 2008, when it last failed to qualify for the playoffs. A year ago, Estancia went 5-0 in league.
The Southern Division does have two at-large entries, but Coach Mike Bargas wasn’t optimistic about his Eagles’ chances of earning one.
“We’re 3-7,” Bargas said, referring to his team’s overall record.
The section plans to release the at-large entries in every division on Sunday, starting at 8 a.m. Teams the selection committee will most likely award the at-large berths to are Canyon and Ocean View.
Despite having to forfeit a 49-14 win against El Dorado on Oct. 29, Canyon is ranked No. 1 in the Southern Division. The Comanches finished 5-5 overall and third in the four-team North Hills League, which has co-champions Brea Olinda and El Modena ranked No. 3 and No. 4, respectively, in the Southern Division.
Ocean View is the fourth-place team from the Golden West League. The Seahawks went 5-5 overall, one of those wins was a 14-13 decision at Estancia on Oct. 1.
— David Carrillo Peñaloza
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•Costa Mesa missed a chance to seize some sizable momentum and a halftime lead because it spent its three timeouts before its final possession began with 2:47 left in the opening half of Friday’s 34-9 Orange Coast League loss to Calvary Chapel.
A 33-yard run by senior tailback Jonathan Brucales jump-started the drive, moving the ball near midfield. A pass interference penalty four plays later set the Mustangs up on the Calvary 14-yard line with 24 seconds left. Two incomplete passes brought up third down with 13 seconds left and sophomore running back Tim French caught a screen pass and advanced to the five-yard line as time expired leaving the score 7-7.
Mesa used its first timeout on second-and-eight from its own 37-yard line midway through the first quarter. Timeout No. 2 came before third-and-seven on its own 38 just four seconds into the second quarter. And the final timeout of the half was called on defense, after Calvary had a first down on the Mustangs’ 16-yard line with 6:43 left in the half.
— Barry Faulkner
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•With injuries to a couple of linebackers, Bargas planned to use quarterback Connor Brown on defense as well against Saddleback.
Brown is a physical player, but Bargas said his 6-foot-3, 195-pound senior took a shot during Tuesday’s practice on defense and landed on his left shoulder. Bargas said Brown missed Estancia’s regular-season finale with a dislocated non-throwing shoulder.
“We needed to do what’s best for the team,” Bargas said. “He’s a big kid, and [the injury] was just an unfortunate thing.
“I do not regret [the move] one bit. We have [two other] quarterbacks, all capable quarterbacks.”
The Eagles went with Eric Carrasco, whose first pass came in the 10th game of the season.
The junior transfer from Costa Mesa played well in the first half. He completed eight of nine passes, including a 17-yard touchdown to put Estancia up, 7-0, in the second quarter.
In the third quarter, with the Eagles up, 7-3, Carrasco threw a costly interception in the end zone. Jacob Jimenez returned the pick 102 yards for a touchdown, giving Saddleback a 10-7 lead, its first advantage of the game.
Carrasco threw a second pick on Estancia’s next possession. The interception led to a three-yard touchdown run by Saddleback running back Geovanni Estrada seven plays later.
“Just mechanics,” Bargas said were the reasons why Carrasco, who was 12 of 16 passing for 133 yards, was picked off. “We practice them, but this is his first game.”
— David Carrillo Peñaloza
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•Edison did a good job of limiting Newport Harbor on big plays. The Sailors had just one play from scrimmage that netted more than 20 yards, a 26-yard pass from Michael Bonds to Reed Rutter late in the first half.
The Chargers also pressured Bonds throughout the night and sacked him six times. Sosefo Mailangi, a 6-foot-4, 250 pound senior defensive end, had three of the sacks for Edison.
— Matt Szabo
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•The last touchdown of the Sailors’ season came in the final minute of the game, a three-yard pass from Bonds to Kobe Benter on fourth-and-goal.
Bonds had tried to connect with his tight end previously on the drive but it was incomplete. Brinkley shouted to Benter that he had to run to the (back right) pylon.
It was there that he caught the touchdown, even with the defensive back draped all over him. The Sailors obviously declined the ensuing pass interference penalty and took the touchdown.
--- Matt Szabo
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•Costa Mesa was significantly plagued by penalties, including four delay-of-game infractions and three encroachment calls when linemen, often more than one, were drawn offside by a hard-count cadence.
The Mustangs’ 19 penalties cost them 132 yards, though four of Calvary Chapels’ 13 penalties for 125 yards created Mesa first downs.
— Barry Faulkner
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•Seniors Cameron Curet, Josh Snipes and Jonathan Brucales stood out as Costa Mesa seniors who were translating maximum effort into impact plays in their final high school game.
Curet, shifting between receiver and quarterback, had 62 rushing yards on 10 carries and gained 25 yards on his only reception, while playing some defense and handling kicking, punting and return duties.
Snipes made a leaping interception, was effective in coverage most of the night, and was the team’s leading receiver with three catches for 30 yards, including a diving 14-yard touchdown grab.
Brucales gained 85 yards on 18 carries and was a constant thorn in the Calvary offense’s side from his outside linebacker spot.
— Barry Faulkner