Sea Kings stuck in the mud

Barry Faulkner

The Corona del Mar High football team was submerged Friday night

under a combination of physical prowess displayed by visiting

Northwood and game-long downpour seldom seen in Southern California.

The result was a 21-0 loss in the battle for Pacific Coast League

supremacy that ensured the Sea Kings will be no better than the

league’s No. 2 representative in the CIF Southern Section Division IX

Playoffs.

But unlike a 17-0 setback to Back Bay rival Newport Harbor in Week

3, which was followed by a three-game losing streak, CdM Coach Dick

Freeman believes his players can recover more quickly from the blow

to their confidence delivered by the Timberwolves.

“I don’t think (Friday’s loss, in which the Sea Kings lost five of

their 11 fumbles and also had one pass intercepted) completely took

the wind out of our sails,” Freeman said. “It was just about the

opposite of our game the week before against Calvary Chapel (a 50-8

win). Against Calvary, everything went right for us. But against

Northwood, it seemed like we couldn’t get a break.

“We bobble a pass back to one of their defenders (a lost fumble

after a 36-yard reception), that could have been a touchdown and we

had another receiver just barely tripped up (after another 36-yard

bomb) that could have been another score. If we have our guy pick up

a fumble (in the University backfield), instead of fall on it, that’s

another score and we didn’t score at the end after getting to their

1-yard line. There are four things that, without anything else being

different in the game, could have given us 28 points. We did all that

bad stuff and we still had a chance to win that game, so I don’t

think the loss will deflate us at all.”

Freeman acknowledged the Timberwolves superiority up front helped

them dominate the neutral zone on offense and defense.

He was, however, encouraged by his defense’s ability to make

Northwood drive for its points.

A 47-yard touchdown run opened the scoring for the Timberwolves,

who extended a 6-0 halftime lead with a 29-yard touchdown pass on its

first second-half possession.

But other than those two plays, Northwood did not have a gain of

more than 13 yards.

Northwood tailback Jeff Keller, who finished with 208 rushing

yards, had just 39 yards after halftime.

“They had the ball a lot (nearly 31 minutes of the 48-minute game)

and I think we did a pretty decent job defensively to keep them from

scoring more points,” Freeman said. “The problem we had was getting

our offense going.”

Just one of CdM’s 13 possessions lasted longer than four plays,

the seven briefest of which took an average of just less than 35

seconds off the clock.

The disappointment of losing a chance to wrap up at least a share

of the league crown, Freeman believes, isn’t as bad as the loss of

senior center Jason Kidushim, who dislocated his left kneecap midway

through the first quarter and may have further damage that could

sideline him for the remainder of the season.

“Losing the game shouldn’t be as hard to recover from as losing

Kidushim,” Freeman said. “That’s our big deal. He makes all our line

calls and we missed a lot of blocks we probably wouldn’t have if he

was in there making those calls. We had tackles trying do make the

calls the other night, but it’s hard for them, because they have a

tough time seeing the other side of the line from where they’re at.

We’re going to have to work very hard to get the kind of

concentration level needed to make the calls Kidushim made for us.”

The Sea Kings can still claim a share of the league crown if they

can defeat last-place Tesoro Friday and hope Calvary Chapel,

outscored the last two weeks, 92-8, can knock off Northwood, which

has now won nine straight PCL games, Thursday.

“It would be nice to get a piece of the league title, but we’d be

backing into it and we’d still be the second-place team from our

league for the playoffs,” Freeman said.