Football: Estancia steals Laguna Beach blind

Tony Altobelli

Costa Mesa - It wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win for Estancia

High’s football team as the Eagles jumped out early and held on for dear

life en route to a 20-14 Pacific Coast League win over Laguna Beach

Friday night at Orange Coast College.

“I’ll take it,” said a relieved coach Dave Perkins afterwards. “I told

my team that the good teams win games like this and two weeks ago, we

would not have won this ball game. But we hung in there and we pulled it

out.”

With Christmas only 63 days away, Laguna Beach (3-4, 0-2) avoided the

rush and turned the ball over to the Eagles six times, all interceptions,

resulting in all 20 of Estancia’s points.

“I don’t remember ever seeing six picks for us in one night,” Perkins

said. “But I’m glad I did tonight.”

Estancia standout Marshall Hendricks made his presence felt early in

the ball game, intercepting a Laguna Beach pass on the third play of the

game.

Quarterback Jeremy Valdes hit Hendricks with a hitch pass and

Hendricks turned that into a 58-yard touchdown on the first offensive

play of the game for the Eagles (5-2, 2-0), ranked No. 9 in the CIF

Southern Section Division IX.

After both teams punted, Hendricks picked off his second pass of the

night, returning the ball into Artists’ territory and setting up

Estancia’s second score.

Senior Sean Freeman, who led the Eagles with 73 yards rushing, scored

on a 17-yard reverse near the end of the first quarter to give the

Estancia a 14-0 lead.

“Sean really picked it up for us tonight,” Perkins said. “He really

responded to the challenge and played well for us.”

With the Artists marching down the field, cornerback John Alderete

came up with Estancia’s third interception of the night, returning the

ball 77 yards down to the Artists’ 4 yard line.

Two plays later, fullback Fahad Jahid rumbled in from 1-yard out to

give the Eagles a 20-0 halftime lead, will all points coming off of

Artists’ turnovers.

The game plan for the Artists was simple: maintain ball control and

keep the ball out of Hendricks’ hands, which they both did.

Laguna Beach had the ball over seven minutes longer than the Eagles

and Hendricks was held to 127 all-purpose yards.

With a 20-0 lead, Perkins decided to limit Hendricks’ playing time to

defense only, as the senior tailback was ailing with a twisted ankle

sustained three weeks ago.

“We wanted to give Marshall some rest and played him on defense only,”

Perkins said.

However, Laguna Beach crept back into the game early in the second

half.

Following an Eagles’ turnover, Laguna Beach drove the ball 53 yards on

eight plays and scored on a 1-yard run from Rob Caron, cutting the lead

to 20-7.

The Artists cut the lead to 20-14 on their first possession of the

fourth quarter when quarterback Ryan Schissler, who threw for 214 yards,

despite four interceptions, connected with Will Blodgett on a 43-yard

touchdown pass.

Hendricks came back into the ball game on the following possession,

but re-twisted his left ankle and left the game with six minutes

remaining.

“He’ll be all right. He was more scared than anything,” Perkins said.

“It’s just a bad twist and he should be ready to play next week.”

Estancia managed to pick up some valuable first downs on their final

drive and when the Artists finally did get the ball back, they were 91

yards away from the tying touchdown and hand only a minute remaining.

On Laguna Beach’s first play of the drive, Freddy Rodriguez put the

game away with an interception, the sixth and final pick of the game for

Estancia.

“We have CdM next week,” Perkins said. “If we manage to win that one,

that would guarantee a share of the PCL title for us, so we have a lot of

hard work to do in the mean time.”