Numbers game

Barry Faulkner

With first-round CIF Southern Section football playoff losses by

Corona del Mar High and Costa Mesa, the statistical book is now closed on

three of the four Newport-Mesa District squads. But not before players at

Estancia and Costa Mesa prompted some rewrites.

Estancia High senior Marshall Hendricks broke the school single-season

rushing record with, as it turned out, some timely running in the final

minute of the regular-season finale against University.

Hendricks came into the contest needing 95 yards to break the standard of

1,473 yards set in 1996 by James Dawkins. His 2-yard touchdown run (his

18th TD of the campaign, which is also a school single-season record)

gave him 90 yards on the night, with 6:47 left.

Uni, which handled the Eagles, 48-12, to snag the league’s final playoff

berth, then produced a 10-play possession, before turning the ball over

on downs with 69 seconds left.

After two pass plays, Hendricks finally got the ball and sprinted around

the right side for 15 yards and his own piece of history. He promptly

gave 7 yards back on the next play, but the game ended, leaving him with

1,477 yards.

Costa Mesa High junior tailback C.J. Zuniga flirted with the 2,000-yard

plateau, but managed to surpass the hallowed standard by 15 yards with a

78-yard performance Friday in a 14-6 CIF Division IX playoff loss to

Pacifica.

Zuniga’s 2,015 yards on 303 carries are, however, only enough to rank him

No. 3 on the school single-season list. Former Mustang Charles Chatman

still holds the school and district single-season record of 2,512 yards

in 1994, while Binh “Runaway” Tran collected 2,303 yards in ’93.

Zuniga is the fourth Newport-Mesa ballcarrier to surpass 2K (Ray Ohrel

gained 2,082 for Newport Harbor in ‘96), but he is the only junior to

have pulled it off. His 28 touchdowns were one off the school

single-season record set by Chatman (‘94) and two behind the district

single-season record established in 1997 by Newport Harbor’s Brett Baker.

Zuniga, who finished with 2,498 all-purpose yards, figures to wage an

assault on the aforementioned single-season records next fall, as well as

the school and district career marks for rushing (4,333 yards by Tran)

and TDs (44 by Tran). Before he dons his shoulder pads again, Zuniga, who

transferred this fall from Arizona, will play baseball for the Mustangs.

Newport Harbor senior Andre Stewart is, of course, still alive in the

postseason, as he leads the 10-0-1 Sailors into Friday’s CIF Division VI

quarterfinal against visiting Villa Park. Stewart currently has 1,726

yards on 263 carries. He needs 152 yards to move ahead of Baker (1,877

yards in ‘97) into No. 2 on Harbor’s all-time single-season list. He did

set the single-game rushing mark with 310 yards against Laguna Hills.

Stewart’s 184-yard effort in Friday’s opening-round win over El Dorado

gave him 10 games this season of at least 100 rushing yards. That not

only is a school single-season record, but leaves him just two shy of the

career record established by Wade Tift (1991-93).

q

The Corona del Mar High boys water polo team will attempt to tie Newport

Harbor with 10 CIF Southern Section championships when the Sea Kings take

on Servite in the Division II final Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. at Belmont

Plaza.

The Sea Kings have won nine of 13 championship-game appearances,

including four crowns under Coach John Vargas, who also guides the men’s

national team.

It’s the first time the Sea Kings have squared off against Servite, the

defending Division II champion, in a title game. But it’s not the first

time Vargas and Servite Coach Jim Sprague have matched wits from poolside

with a CIF title at stake. Vargas’ Sea Kings were defeated, 6-5, by

Sprague’s Sunny Hills Lancers for the 4-A crown in 1986.

Long Beach Poly (13) and El Segundo (12) are the only schools with more

CIF championships than the two Back Bay schools.

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From the whatever happened to Brett Baker file: His father, Jeff, reports

the 1997 Newport-Mesa District MVP led Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with 98

tackles as a sophomore safety. He led the Mustangs in tackles each of the

final nine games, finished with four forced fumbles, three fumble

recoveries and one interception.

Baker may get some company in the secondary soon, as Woodbridge High

Coach Rick Gibson said Warrior legend Shane Harris, a four-year varsity

performer, is being recruited most heavily by the Mustangs.