Big plays get big results for Sea Kings

Rick Devereux

The Corona del Mar High football team defeated Costa Mesa, 35-9,

Friday night at Newport Harbor High in a nonleague game to mark the

third consecutive year the Sea Kings opened up a season with two

victories.

Before the game, Costa Mesa Coach Tom Baldwin said he was worried

about the passing attack of CdM (2-0), ranked No. 7 in CIF Southern

Section Division IX, especially since seniors Kevin Welch and Shane

Collins, the two leading receivers from a year ago, were back in

uniform after not dressing for the season opener last week due to

injuries.

The two did not disappoint, producing a combined 179 receiving

yards and two touchdowns.

“I was a little nervous about having those two out there,” Sea

Kings Coach Dick Freeman said. Welch was sidelined last week due to a

groin injury and Collins had a bad back.

Neither looked tentative on either offense or defense. Collins

played a few series at cornerback in the second quarter and Welch

played much of the game at safety.

“They didn’t play last week [in the season opener], and they made

a big difference in the game,” Baldwin said. “We probably still

would’ve lost, but it might have been, 28-21, or something closer.”

Mesa utilizes an attacking defense designed to put pressure on the

quarterback. The only drawback is it can lead to big plays by the

offense. And the Sea Kings made big plays on offense, scoring on

three of their first four possessions.

Following a Ryan Bagwell 28-yard field goal for the Mustangs

(0-2), CdM quarterback Tom Welch gave the Sea Kings the lead on a

64-yard option keeper on Corona’s second possession of the game, a

drive that took three plays.

Wess Presson had a 40-yard touchdown run on their next possession,

and Tom Welch threw a 29-yard jump ball to his brother, Kevin, on the

final play of the first quarter.

Welch ran a quarterback sneak on Corona del Mar’s first possession

of the second half to put the tally at 28-3, and on their next series

the Sea Kings were pinned back on their own 5-yard line. Welch evaded

a pass rush and lobbed a fade to Collins, who caught the ball at the

25 and outran the Mesa defense for a 95-yard score.

“I had a good feeling I would be able to break it [for a

touchdown],” Collins said. “I knew they were probably going to put

either a linebacker or safety on me, and I knew I could out run

them.”

Mustang quarterback Ryan French took the quarterback keeper in

from 1-yard out for the final score of the game. The kick was no

good.

Despite the convincing victory, Freeman said there are aspects of

the offense he would like to see improve.

“We’ve got to get a short passing game going,” he said. “I would

like to see some sort of ball-control passing from our offense.”

Baldwin wanted to get the ball into the hands of his star tight

end, Jeff Waldron, and had several plays highlighted that would

achieve that goal. The CdM defense, however, had its own way of

containing the 6-foot-3 senior.

“They were holding Jeff at the line of scrimmage, but the refs

never called it,” Baldwin said.

Waldron finished with four catches for 49 yards and had several

other passes in his direction that were off the mark.