Prep football: Adapt and survive

Barry Faulkner

CORONA DEL MAR - An outbreak of broken bones and twisted joints

among his players has forced Corona del Mar High football coach Dick

Freeman to bend some team rules this fall in order to give his team a

fighting chance on game night.

So, when sophomore tight end Brian Dunn, who had missed two practices

due to illness, skeptically asked coaches last week if he’d be suiting up

for Friday’s game at Westminster, Freeman got creative.

“We told him, since he was sick, he could suit up under rule one B,

paragraph three,” Freeman said jokingly.

Sure enough, Freeman was forced to use Dunn, when starting tight end

Kris Cooper, who assumed the job after Tyler McClellan went down with a

rig cage injury, left with a strained knee ligament late in the fourth

quarter.

And so it goes for the Sea Kings, who capped a calamitous preleague

season with a 19-14 win over Westminster to improve to 3-1-1.

Cooper, whom Freeman believes is doubtful for Friday’s Pacific Coast

League opener against Estancia, adds his name to an already overcrowded

CdM injury list.

Senior center Adam Dunn, lost for the season due to injuries sustained

in an offseason car accident, has been joined on the sideline, at various

times, by more than a handful of teammates.

Jeff Reed (broken collarbone) will remain sidelined, while the status

of John Daley, a two-way junior standout who broke his wrist in Week 3,

and McClellan, also a two-way starter, has yet to be determined.

Freeman said Daley could be cleared to play, even if his cast remains,

while McClellan’s availability is subject to how ready his sensitive rib

cage is for contact this week.

Senior Matt Feinauer, who missed two games when his foot was run over

by a car tire, returned against Westminster with impressive results. He

caught two passes for 92 yards and figures to provide senior quarterback

Dylan Hendy another dependable target to go with senior Steven Ward.

Ward made three catches of consequence against the Lions, including

touchdowns of 32 and 12 yards, the latter the game-winner to cash in

junior Matt Cooper’s 79-yard interception return with 3:02 left.

Hendy, who extended his streak without an interception to two games,

averaged 21.3 yards on his 10 completions. The 231 aerial yards was not

only Hendy’s career-high output, but marked the best single-game passing

production by a Sea King in 48 games, dating back to the season-finale in

1996.

Despite the winning record, Freeman delivered mixed reviews for his

team’s preleague campaign.

“We’ve made some big plays, offensively, but consistency has hurt us,”

Freeman said. “We’ve been able to move the ball, but we’ve been up and

down.

“Defensively, we seem to be just hanging on by our fingernails. We had

a pretty good game against Westminster, but we let down a couple times

and they scored. We need to play with more confidence and take command of

things a little better.”

Overall, Freeman would also like to see a return to the emotional

level his team displayed in the 42-17 season-opening win over Cypress.

“I think we’re letting all these (injuries) get to us, and it has put

us in what I’d call survival mode,” Freeman said. “We need to be more

aggressive and be better able to attack.”