CdM scales down swagger

Barry Faulkner

With a little more than three weeks from the time fall practice

begins to the opening game, the Corona del Mar High football coaches

worked as thoroughly as they could to tutor Sea King players on the

finer points of offense, defense and special teams.

And while the dividends from this labor were apparent in Friday’s

35-15 nonleague victory over Newport-Mesa District rival Costa Mesa,

it wasn’t 12 hours later that

veteran CdM head man Dick Freeman realized there was one aspect of

the game he and his staff had failed to devote proper instructional

attention: postgame interviews.

So it was Saturday morning that Freeman, after acknowledging his

own ill-chosen words within earshot of a reporter during his postgame

address to the team on the field, implored his players to refrain

from chest-pounding verbiage that could wind up in the next day’s

newspaper and, subsequently, onto the motivational bulletin boards of

future opponents.

Freeman and one proud CdM standout made postgame remarks revealing

the Sea Kings’ pursuit of a CIF Southern Section Division IX

championship this fall.

“After I said ‘One down, 13 to go’ (a 14th game is played only by

those who reach the CIF title game), I thought to myself, ‘Oh no,

what a stupid thing to say,’ ” Freeman said. “I knew I should have

stopped at ‘One down.’ ”

Freeman was also surprised to read one player’s print-bound

prediction that the Sea Kings could “go all the way,” as well as a

reference to smelling the CIF championship ring.

“They weren’t the kind of things we should have been saying after

the first game,” Freeman lamented. “(Humble postgame decorum) was

something we hadn’t talked to the kids about, but now we have.”

There wasn’t much else for the CdM coaching staff to quibble with

after the impressive debut turned in by the Sea Kings, who displayed

a strong running game, aggressive and opportunistic defense, as well

as solid special teams.

Asked how the performance held up under videotape review by the

coaches, usually a stern process during which even the smallest flaws

are scornfully ridiculed, Freeman said, “ It held up pretty well. We

were pretty happy with what our kids did.”

Freeman did mention a concern over too many mistakes in the

defensive line. But most of those, he revealed, were instances where

aggression superseded wisdom.

“We had some guys doing things we hadn’t told them to do, but it

wasn’t about bad effort,” Freeman said.

The efforts of the offensive line drew particular praise from

Freeman, who had identified that area as a leading concern heading

into the season.

“Our guys did block some people,” Freeman said of starting tackles

Andy Lujan and Danny Tarkesian, guards John Daley and John Hayes,

center Jeff Wicken, as well as tight end Kris Cooper and fullback

Matt Cooper. “For the most part, we got our hats on the right

(defensive) people.”

The result was 208 yards on 46 rushing attempts, which nearly

doubled the run production of the Mustangs.

CdM senior tailback Mark Cianciulli collected 172 rushing yards

and 26 carries, including scoring runs of 74 and 2 yards. Senior

tailback Keith Long averaged 4.5 yards on five carries and drew

praise from his coach.

“I thought Keith ran it real well,” Freeman said. “We were very

happy with him. He’s a big ol’ kid who, along with Cianciulli, gives

us two different looks at tailback. We’ll probably cut back Mark’s

carries a little and give Keith the ball more.”

Different looks was a recurring theme on both sides of the ball as

the Sea Kings

realized their plan to liberally rotate bodies to keep a nucleus

of two-way standouts fresh.

“As a staff, we worked real hard on substituting players, because

it was something we wanted to get done to keep guys rested,” Freeman

said.

Freeman singled out senior outside linebacker Jeff Reed’s play in

the linebacking corps and was also happy with the play of everyone in

the secondary.

Freeman said senior K.C. Rawlins, who sparkled at safety and

displayed a booming leg on kickoffs (drilling four well into the end

zone for touchbacks) appears to be OK after being leveled on an

onside kickoff attempt in the closing seconds. Freeman said Rawlins

was watching the ball sail out of bounds when he was blindsided by a

Mesa player on the play. No penalty was called.

Freeman and Mesa Coach Dave Perkins both said they exchanged words

about the play when Freeman came out to check on Rawlins and there

was clearly tension between the two when they met at midfield to

shake hands after the game.