Ocean View rolls again

Ocean View High head football coach Harold Eggers admitted that

there were plenty of good things this Seahawks came up with during Friday

night’s 46-20 nonleague romp past visiting Garden Grove.

But, he also was aware of the bad that took place at Huntington

Beach High’s Sheue Stadium.

‘The bad is that we’re still making too many mistakes,’ the

third-year coach said. ‘We can’t rest on two wins, and the guys need to

know that in order to keep on being successful, they’ll need to eliminate

some needless mistakes.

Still, Eggers found the silver lining in the lopsided win.

First, there was the continued outstanding play of senior

quarterback Deshai Houston, who passed for 254 yards and two touchdowns,

ran 29 yards for another score, and finished Ocean View’s scoring on the

night with a 27-yard interception return.

This, coming on the heels of a 376-yard, six-touchdown performance

in last week’s season opening 48-22 win over Twentynine Palms.

‘Anytime you have Deshai in the backfield, he opens up a lot of

possibilities for us,’ Eggers said. ‘He can scramble and also has the

ability to get to the outside, and then he can also drop back and throw a

nice pass. He has a real strong arm, and he has some talented receivers

to get the ball to.’

One such is Patrick Campbell, a sophomore receiver and Houston’s back

up at quarterback. Campbell had his second superb game of the

season, this one netting 145 yards on just seven receptions.

Not one of Campbell’s catches went for a touchdown, but he had

several key third-down conversion receptions to sustain scoring drives.

‘Again, Patrick made some outstanding catches for us,’ Eggers said of

Campbell, who had 90 yards on five receptions last week against

Twentynine Palms. ‘He’s real dangerous, a great athlete, and he really

made some key catches for us tonight.’

Not to be outdone by its offense, the Ocean View defense also had

a say in the outcome of this game.

With the Seahawks holding a 27-14 lead and Garden Grove (1-1)

attempting to make a comeback, Ocean View’s defense scored two touchdowns

and set up a third score within a 3:10 span of the fourth quarter to put

the game out of reach.

First, defensive back Justin Kruger, who moments earlier was wide

right on a 28-yard field goal attempt, atoned for that miss by scooping

up an errant pitch by Argonaut back-up quarterback Matt Crippen, and

returned it 25 yards for the score.

On Garden Grove’s next possession, which saw the Argonauts move

from their own 32 down to the Ocean View 39-yard line, Kruger’s twin

brother and fellow defensive back, Nicholas, intercepted Crippen at the

25, and matched Justin with a 25-yard return of his own.

Although Nicholas Kruger didn’t score on the play, he did set up

the Seahawks near midfield, and on first down, Houston gave a pump fake,

then lofted a perfect strike to a streaking Phillip Smith. Smith made the

catch in stride at the 21 and raced untouched to the end zone.

The 52-yard pass play put Ocean View up at 40-14, but on Garden

Grove’s first play from scrimmage on its ensuing possession, Houston came

up with a 27-yard interception return for a touchdown.

Defensively, Ocean View also received outstanding games from junior

linebacker Erick Falessi, who finished with a pair of quarterback sacks,

and senior captain Chris Hill, who also had a sack.

‘We had some outstanding individual efforts tonight,’ Eggers

concluded. ‘Despite the mistakes, I thought that this was a nice win.

This gives us some added momentum heading into next week’s game at

Century, and that’s good, because our next five games are on the road.

‘So, I guess you can say that this was a nice victory.’