Prep football: No lead is safe

Barry Faulkner

CORONA DEL MAR - Through two weeks of the 2001 football season,

there are certain basic truths that apply to the Corona del Mar High Sea

Kings and their fans.

1) If you leave at halftime, you’re sure to miss the best part.

2) It is much easier to come from behind than play from ahead.

After rallying from a 17-10 third-quarter deficit to top Cypress,

42-17, in the season opener, CdM saw a 34-13 fourth-quarter lead

evaporate in a 34-34 tie with Troy Saturday at Newport Harbor High.

“We got a sense of prosperity (against the Warriors),” CdM Coach Dick

Freeman said. “I think the worst thing that can happen to our team is for

us to be ahead.”

Freeman said there was a trace Saturday of the intensity he saw in his

players against Cypress.

“But the dimmer switch was down a little,” Freeman explained. “We just

didn’t have all the electricity we needed.”

Contrary to his postgame reaction, Freeman said Troy’s comeback was

due not as much to a lack of conditioning on his team’s part, as a

failure to make defensive adjustments.

“We let the same thing happen to us all night long,” Freeman said of

Troy’s blocking scheme, which helped produce 284 ground yards and all

five Warrior touchdowns.

“We didn’t adjust, so they just kept getting better and what they were

doing (offensively) and we just kept getting worse.”

Freeman, who coordinates the defense, was happy with his team’s

offensive production.

“I was happy with the way we moved the ball. (Senior quarterback

Dylan) Hendy played well. We dropped some of his passes, or he would have

had even better numbers.

As it was, Hendy completed 11 of 18 for 162 yards and two touchdowns.

His 11 completions were most by a CdM signal caller in 31 games. Hendy’s aerial yards also equaled the highest single-game total by a CdM player

in the last 32 games.

The Sea Kings’ ground game was also effective, as four ball carriers

each gained more than 30 yards to help produce 189 rushing yards.

Despite junior linebacker Matt Boyce blocking a conversion kick that

would have given Troy the victory with six seconds left, Freeman said the

reaction to Saturday’s stalemate was more like that after a loss.

“Being that we were 21 points ahead in the fourth quarter, we didn’t

have a real good feeling after the game,” Freeman said. “The way things

were headed, if there had been another minute in the game, Troy probably

would have won.”

Though still unbeaten on the field, the Sea Kings sustained a loss

Friday, when senior Matt Feinauer had his foot run over by a car tire. A

kick returner who also has contributed at cornerback and receiver,

Feinauer is expected to miss at least two weeks, according to Freeman,

who does not know yet whether the foot is broken.

The Sea Kings will attempt to pull things together for this week’s

renewal of the Battle of the Bay, as Newport Harbor (1-0-1) visits Orange Coast College Friday at 7 p.m. for the 40th meeting between the Back Bay

rivals.