Estancia continues self-destructive tendencies

Barry Faulkner

If experience wasn’t important, no one would start in the mail

room.

Perhaps no greater proponent of such reasoning can be found than

Estancia High football coach Jay Noonan, who is reminded on a daily

basis how little experience most of his players bring to the field.

Just when Noonan and his assistants seem to have one shortcoming

addressed, another crops up.

“We are still a very young team and I have to remind myself of

that,” Noonan said after an absence of acumen surfaced at two crucial

moments of the Eagles’ 24-14 Golden West League loss to Saddleback

Friday at the Santa Ana Bowl. “Our kids are still learning football,

which can be frustrating, at times, for us coaches. There are times

you just want to say ‘Come on guys!’ We just have to keep working to

try and cut down our mistakes. Right now, we’re our own worst enemy.”

The first costly mistake was a breakdown in the secondary, which

allowed a 36-yard touchdown pass on the final play of the first half

to enable the Roadrunners to take a 17-7 lead, and momentum, into the

halftime locker room.

“We were screaming at (the defensive backs) to get back, but maybe

we weren’t loud enough,” Noonan said. “It was a foolish mistake and

it cost us a lot of momentum.”

Noonan said the Eagles also broke down on punt coverage, allowing

a long return to set Saddleback up for a short scoring drive in the

third quarter.

“That was probably the play that turned things their way in the

second half,” Noonan said.

Noonan said he was pleased with the improvement his ball carriers

showed protecting the ball, but the Eagles lost two fumbles on

center-quarterback exchanges, something that had not occurred

previously.

Noonan was happy about his defense’s ability to contain Roadrunner

rushing leader Ramiro Chavez to 29 rushing yards, more than 100 fewer

than his average coming in. But the outside portion of Saddleback’s

option attack proved problematic for the Eagles, who saw Roadrunner

quarterback Guillermo Garcia score on an 18-yard option keeper and

produce a team-leading 54 rushing yards.

Noonan found positives in the pass protection provided by his

offensive line, which allowed the Eagles to throw for 212 yards, the

most in the school’s last 35 games, as well as a strong defensive

performance turned in by senior end Erik Andersen.

But the bottom line resulted in the Eagles’ fourth straight loss,

their 14th in their last 15 contests.

“Sooner or later, we’re going to have one game where everything

functions together,” Noonan said. “But until then, this is difficult

to deal with.”

The Eagles (1-4) continue their quest for efficiency Friday, when

they visit Santa Ana (4-1) at the Santa Ana Bowl.