Eagles searching

Patrick Laverty

Prior to the first two games of the season, Estancia High football

coach Craig Fertig said the Eagles needed to assert themselves with a

power running game.

Estancia won both those games.

Going into the third game of the season, Fertig was concerned that

teams were going to do everything to stop that power running game.

Estancia made some changes to its offensive game plan and it lost.

Expect Fertig to revert back to the power running game this week

against Ocean View in the Golden West League opener for both teams

Friday at 7 p.m. at the Seahawks’ new on-campus stadium.

“We got a little bit too damned fancy,” Fertig said. “We need to

go back to what we do best. We’ve got big linemen, big backs and a

quarterback that runs play action well. We need to say, ‘Here’s

Estancia. Now you stop us.’ ”

Ocean View (1-2) hasn’t stopped much of anything on the ground.

The Seahawks have allowed an average of 190 yards rushing per game.

After averaging 204 yards rushing in its first two games, Estancia

gained just 128 yards on 46 carries in a 26-7 loss to Katella, an

average of just 2.8 yards per carry.

Fullback Bubba Kapko, who had 160 yards rushing in Week 1 and 104

in Week 2, carried the ball just eight times for 26 yards against

Katella.

“You know who’s beating us, is us,” Fertig said. “We’re going to

take care of us”

Fertig expected to spend most of this week concentrating on “us,”

whether it be better tackling on defense or figuring out ways to take

advantage of scoring opportunities on offense.

“We tackled people [against Katella], but we didn’t impress with

our tackling,” Fertig said. “Still, our defense put our offense in

good field position four times and we did nothing with it.”

Ocean View could be a perfect remedy and possibly will allow

Estancia to gain its first league victory since 2000.

The Seahawks have rushed for just 91 yards in three games this

year.

Their passing game is not much better, having completed just 11 of

41 for 166 yards, with four interceptions.

Last week, Ocean View lost to Century, 28-7, a team Estancia has

already beaten this year, 22-20.

The Seahawks lone win was a 21-13 victory over Santiago in the

season opener, a game in which Ocean View returned an interception

for a touchdown and recorded two safeties.

Despite the loss last week, Estancia has still improved remarkably

under Fertig and nowhere is that more reflected than in its two

victories, which are one more than the Eagles had in 2001 and 2002

combined.

Now it’s time to see if Fertig can continue that improvement in

league play.

“We’re starting to play for the money now,” Fertig said.