Football: CdM survives, 34-34

Tony Altobelli

CORONA DEL MAR - Apparently, Corona del Mar High waterboys Paul

Niday and Gerard Forbes must have read the last page of Friday night’s

football game before it actually took place.

With CdM just one extra point away from a heartbreaking loss, both

Niday and Forbes said out loud, “Tie game. We’re going to be tied.”

Apparently, Sea King Matt Boyce was listening.

The CdM junior plowed through the middle, reached out and blocked

Troy’s game-winning extra point with six seconds remaining to preserve a

34-34 stalemate with the visiting Warriors Saturday night at Newport

Harbor High.

“I’d say we were pretty lucky to walk out of here with a tie,” CdM

Coach Dick Freeman said. “We were out of gas and Troy knew it. There was

not too much we could do about it. Fortunately, Matt made the big play

for us at the end. I wish we had that type of penetration when Troy was

running the ball.”

The Warriors (1-0-1) racked up 303 yards on the ground, most of which

came in Troy’s 21-point fourth quarter, helping the visitors rally from a

34-13 deficit.

“We had the big lead early and I think we got a little complacent in

the second half, but you have to give Troy a lot of credit,” Freeman

said. “They didn’t quit over there, but we didn’t quit over here either.

We just got gassed. We don’t know how to play tired yet, but we’ll get

there.”

CdM (1-0-1), took advantage of an errant Troy punt snap and used the

cushy field position for a four-play, 30-yard drive, capped off by a

21-yard touchdown run by junior Matt Cooper.

Troy answered back with a three-play, 65-yard scoring drive. Following

a 45-yard run by Jordan McCarthy, Will Otto scored the first of his four

touchdown runs, this one from five yards out, tying the game.

From there, CdM scored 20 straight points to take command. First,

junior Mark Cianciulli capped off a five-play, 55-yard drive with a

touchdown from a yard out. Following a Troy turnover with 1:25 remaining

in the first half, CdM pulled out some trickery when backup quarterback

Jonathan Hubbard took a backward pitch from quarterback Dylan Hendy and

fired a perfect pass to junior K.C. Rawlins in the back of the end zone

with 17 seconds left before halftime, giving CdM a 21-7 lead.

Cianciulli sparked CdM’s next touchdown with a 47-yard punt return,

setting up a 5-yard touchdown pass from Hendy to senior Steven Ward. The

extra point attempt was unsuccessful, making the score, 27-7.

From there, it became a Troy run-fest. The Warriors rumbled 65 yards

on 13 running plays and Otto scored from a yard out, cutting the lead to

27-13.

CdM appeared to regain the momentum on its next drive when Hendy found

receiver Jeff Reed down the left sideline for a 29-yard touchdown pass,

making it, 34-13.

But that would be it on the offensive end for the Sea Kings as Troy

owned the ball for eight of the final 12 minutes of action and scored

three times. Otto (21 carries, 76 yards) and Luis Cardenas (17 carries,

138 yards) were the biggest thorns in CdM’s defensive backside down the

stretch.

“We couldn’t get our defense off the field long enough,” Freeman said.

“Even when we scored, we did it quickly, so the defense was on the field

a lot tonight.”

Hendy ended the night completing 11 passes for 162 yards with two

touchdowns and one interception. “He’s been doing a good job for us,”

Freeman said. “His looks and reads are getting better.”

The game started with a moment of silence as a tribute to those lost

in Tuesday’s terrorist attack on New York, Washington D.C. and

Pennsylvania. For three hours, 1,800 people were allowed to break from

reality and CdM and Troy didn’t disappoint.