CdM sees return on investment

Barry Faulkner

The Corona del Mar High players pumped their fists, raised their

helmets, howled at the moon and appeared to thoroughly savor the Sea

Kings’ crucial Pacific Coast League-opening 14-13 football victory

over University Thursday night at Newport Harbor High.

Meanwhile, most of the CdM coaches quivered with emotion, slumped

from exhaustion and wondered how it would look if they called in

spent for work Friday, after having emphasized to their players the

importance of not shirking their 8 a.m. classes.

CdM Coach Dick Freeman looked as if he’d played the hard-fought

contest, in which momentum swings appeared to shift, or at least

threaten to shift, with seemingly every series, if not from play to

play.

“The excitement is what draws us to coaching,” Freeman said

Sunday, after a few days to recharge the batteries and begin

preparation for Friday’s PCL clash at Laguna Beach. “All of our

coaches really like the game and they invest a lot into it. It’s only

natural the emotions come out on game nights.”

Freeman said he has become better at masking his emotions on the

sideline, but that does not mean he experiences them any less.

Offensive Coordinator Ed Blanton, observing the game from the

press box, is not as difficult to read as his head coach. Blanton

shouted and swayed, cajoled and cringed with each of the accidents,

either happy or horrific, that affected the Sea Kings’ fortunes

against the Trojans.

So too, CdM fans groaned and gasped, sighed, shuddered and

screamed as the two teams battled for possession of the ball and the

coveted victory.

Often the reversal of fortune was abrupt, as with the game’s

turning point when Kris Cooper fell on a Uni fumble the first play

after the Trojans appeared to deflate the CdM sail, converting a

fourth-and-one set up by a mindless personal foul penalty on a punt

that would have given CdM field position near midfield, trailing,

13-7.

A holding penalty two plays into CdM’s ensuing possession

threatened to scuttle the comeback opportunity, until quarterback

Jonathan Hubbard, who completed all five of his passes, arched a

spiral to Kevin Welch for 42 yards and a first down at the Uni

14-yard line.

Five plays later, Mark Cianciulli leaped across the goal line to

tie the game and David Del Fante kicked the conversion to finalize

the score with 58 seconds left in the third quarter.

The game was far from decided, of course, as drama continued to

build until Uni’s desperation long pass, though complete, came up

short at the CdM 11 as time expired.

CdM twice fumbled the ball away and lost the ball twice more,

though both plays were whistled dead to negate Uni recoveries.

CdM had two apparent interceptions fall through defenders’ hands

and scrambled in vain to recover three Uni fumbles, some of which

were up for grabs long enough to create a wave of audible

anticipation from the CdM faithful, before being scooped up by

Trojans.

“We just didn’t do enough bad stuff to lose,” summarized Freeman,

who had seen his team squander away previous chances in the

three-game losing streak that preceded Thursday’s win.

Freeman said the good fortune came none too soon for his

hard-working team, which carried great expectations into the season.

“These guys have put a lot of work into this thing, so they

deserve to see some good come from it,” Freeman said. “This one kind

of validated all that work. If you’re not winning, sometimes you

start questioning whether or not you can. This should help our guys’

confidence.”