Sea Kings have that CIF hunger

Barry Faulkner

Postseason experience can come in handy this time of year, but the

fact that the Corona del Mar High football team failed to make the

playoffs last season might also work to the Sea Kings’ advantage when

they visit Pacifica in a CIF Southern Section Division IX first-round

clash Friday at 7 p.m. at Bolsa Grande High.

“It ends up being a spin thing,” CdM Coach Dick Freeman said. “It

can be a matter of how you present it to the kids. Our seniors went

to the playoffs once and got mugged (a 34-3 first-round loss to South

Hills in 2000) and then they didn’t go last year. Now, we get to go

again, so let’s do something.”

It has been six seasons since the Sea Kings (6-4) have managed a

playoff victory, having lost their last three first-round dates

(1998-2000), after advancing to the Division V semifinals in 1995.

And Pacifica (8-2), runner-up to Los Amigos in the Garden Grove

League, will provide a formidable challenge for the Sea Kings, who

finished second in the Pacific Coast League.

The Mariners, led by Coach Bill Craven, who has won 202 games in

his 27 seasons at the helm, are making their eighth straight playoff

appearance and come in on a six-game winning streak.

The Sea Kings capped their PCL campaign with a 48-28 victory over

Tesoro Friday at Newport Harbor High. CdM scored 34 straight points

after the Titans forged a 7-7 tie early in the second quarter,

allowing Freeman and his staff to rest the starters for the final

period.

“To get a quarter off and not to have been beaten up for a whole

game was a plus for our starters,” said Freeman, who believes Tesoro

(1-9, 0-5 in the PCL) did little to prepare his team for the

postseason.

“Our guys just went out and played a football game,” Freeman said.

The Sea Kings, winners of four of their last five, will finish out

without the services of senior center and inside linebacker Jason

Kidushim, who had surgery to repair knee ligament and tendon damage

suffered in the Week 9 loss to Northwood.

Freeman used seniors John Hayes and Joseph Carr to fill in for

Kidushim on offense against Tesoro, with Hayes shifting to his

familiar guard spot when Carr, who also starts at defensive end,

entered the lineup.

The Sea Kings are not unfamiliar with Pacifica, since the Mariners

joined CdM and Villa Park in a three-way scrimmage the week before

this season opened.

Yet Freeman said that experience, while beneficial to players in

terms of individual matchups, will be virtually useless in devising a

game plan this week.

“I probably won’t even look at the videotape of the scrimmage,”

Freeman said. “That was so long ago and both teams were trying so

many things with different personnel. I think it will help our guys,

in knowing they weren’t blown off the face of the earth (by the

Mariners).”

If CdM can get past Pacifica it would meet either No. 2-seeded

Fullerton (8-2) or Anaheim (3-7) in the quarterfinals. The Sea Kings,

by virtue of winning a coin flip Sunday at the Southern Section

office to determine second-round hosts, would be home no matter which

quarterfinal opponent they may face.

La Habra (9-1), which trounced CdM, 41-14, in a Week 5 nonleague

clash, is the No. 1 seed in Division IX. Orange League champion

Western (8-2) and PCL champion Northwood (9-1) are the Nos. 3 and 4

seeds, respectively.

With 207 rushing yards on 13 carries against Tesoro, including

touchdown runs of 67, 11, 8 and 4 yards, CdM senior tailback Mark

Cianciulli surpassed the 1,000-yard plateau this season. Cianciulli

has 1,118 yards and 13 TDs this season, 2,567 rushing yards and 27

TDs for his varsity career.