Two-minute drill
Corona del Mar High football coach Dick Freeman and Calvary Chapel
Coach Lyle Lansdell are good friends and travel to coaching
conventions together. Their two families also take summer vacations
together.
It was no surprise to see Freeman pull CdM starters after one
series in the third quarter with the Sea Kings leading, 35-0,
Saturday night at Westminster High.
Lansdell, who was Freeman’s offensive coordinator at CdM from
1994-2001, said he wanted to hold the Sea Kings to fewer than 40
points and Freeman appeared willing to oblige.
The Sea Kings wound up with a 42-6 victory.
* The resume of Estancia High Coach Craig Fertig is about as
impressive as a prep coach can have, but even Fertig’s experience --
including five seasons as head coach at Oregon State -- pales in
comparison to his game-night “eye in the sky,” Dave Levy.
Levy, who as the USC quarterbacks coach tutored Fertig as a
collegiate player, spent 20 seasons as an NFL assistant with the San
Diego Chargers and Detroit Lions. He has also coached with the Los
Angeles Extreme in the XFL and the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the
Canadian Football League.
Fertig said Levy, who played on UCLA’s only national championship
football team in 1954, coached 16 seasons at USC, before being named
assistant athletic director at the school.
Levy said he attends Estancia games and talks with Fertig over a
headset, suggesting things and pointing out the opponent’s schemes
and tendencies.
“I’d love to be there for every practice, but I live 55 miles
away,” Levy said Friday night before the Eagles’ 21-14 Golden West League triumph over Ocean View at Newport Harbor High.
“[Levy] makes me a lot calmer,” Fertig said. “If I start going off
on a [strategic] path I shouldn’t, he reels me back in.”
* Newport Harbor High has started 12 seasons with a 5-0 record. In
those seasons, the Sailors, who began this season 5-0, but tied
Foothill, 10-10, Friday in their Sea View League opener, have failed
to win the sixth game nine times, including eight losses.
Friday’s stalemate is only the third tie for Newport during Coach
Jeff Brinkley’s 19-year tenure.
* Sage Hill School’s 62-point output in Friday’s 43-point drubbing
of Silver Lake, in the school’s first home night game, was easily the
program’s single-game scoring record.
The previous high had been 42 points, accomplished twice.
Through the first eight games of last season, the Lightning had
produced only 63 points and they finished the 1-8 campaign last fall
with just 77 total points.
This season, Sage (5-1), has scored 217 points, while allowing
only 67.
* The Mustangs utilized the speed of junior wide receiver Evan
Hunter in their 27-14 loss to Saddleback Friday at the Santa Ana
Bowl. Hunter didn’t catch any passes but he carried seven times for
31 yards.
Most of his yards came on reverses, often taking the second
handoff of the play.
“[The Roadrunners] were overplaying us on one side, so we had to
go the other way and counter,” Mesa Coach Tom Baldwin said.
* Costa Mesa junior tailback Tyler Legg accounted for slightly
more than 50% of the Mustangs’ total offense (276 yards), with his
139 rushing yards on 26 carries.
In the last two games, Legg has carried 50 times for 323 yards, an
average of 6.5 yards per attempt.
* Mesa senior tight end Jeff Waldron had a season-low one catch
for 18 yards, but the Mustangs can’t be faulted for not trying to get
him the ball.
The Roadrunners covered the 6-foot-3, 215-pounder tight, often
double-teaming Waldron.
“[The Roadrunners] did a very good job covering Jeff,” Baldwin
said. “We were forced to go to Jeff at the end and it worked.”
Waldron’s lone catch was an 18-yard TD.
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