Laguna ready to rebound

Mike Sciacca

The past two weeks have been tough on the Laguna Beach High football

team.

Actually, they would have been tough on any team.

The Breakers opened their 2004 Pacific Coast League slate against

highly-ranked teams in reigning league champion Northwood and red-hot

Tesoro, and now that they have the league’s two heavyweights behind

them, they can focus on the final three weeks of the league race.

These three weeks will be crucial as Laguna fights to stay in the

hunt for a possible CIF playoff berth.

That fight begins tonight against University at Irvine High.

Kickoff is 7 p.m.

“I tell the boys that it’s a new season,” Coach Jimmy Nolan said.

“Who cares about the last two weeks. Forget about it, it’s over.

Learn from it and get angry for this week.

“With three weeks to go, we’re 0-0. If we can go 3-0, we’re in. We

have three seasons ahead, each one, a game long. We’ll play each on

like it’s our last.”

The Breakers’ first “new season” begins against a University team

that stumbles into tonight’s game with an overall record of 1-5-1.

Like Laguna, the Trojans are looking for their first Pacific Coast

League win tonight: a week ago, they dropped to 0-2 following a 33-28

loss to Calvary Chapel.

University quarterback Steve Crooks threw for 153 yards and a

touchdown and also ran for another score in the loss.

Laguna will be looking to light up the scoreboard for the first

time in three weeks, following consecutive shutout losses to

Northwood and Tesoro, the latter by a 41-0 score.

The Breakers offense figures to get back in the scoring groove as

it will go up against a Trojans defense that is yielding an average

of 36 points a game.

Nolan says his team learned valuable lessons in games against the

league’s front runners.

“I tell them they proved they can play with both of those schools

-- at times,” he said of Northwood and Tesoro. “But it’s got to be

the whole time, not just a couple of quarters. Sure, they get

fatigues playing both ways, as only about 15 or 16 kids play, which

leads to turnovers and mental breakdowns.

“But too bad. It is what it is and if we’re going to make the

playoffs, it’s got to be mind over matter. No excuses. Fight, and

leave every ounce of blood, sweat and tears on the field. When a wild

animal is wounded, he has two choices: lay down and die, or get up

and fight for its life. It’s time to fight for our life to make the

playoffs.”

And Laguna is wounded.

The Breakers injury report is status quo from the previous week,

although a few more casualties have been added to the list: Garrett

Preston is out a few weeks with injured collar bone on his throwing

arm; Brendon Preston, starting defensive end and cousin of Garrett,

also has an injured collar bone and also is sidelined for a few

weeks; Lewie Duker, returning all-league defensive end, has an

injured elbow and Nolan says he’s “doubtful” for tonight’s game.

Adam Kennaday, Brad Wolf, Jodie Stevens and Shaughnessy McDermott

are still out due to injury, starting nose guard, John Huerta, is

playing injured, and starting running back/linebacker, Greg Arellano,

is battling the flu.

Following tonight’s game, Laguna will take on Calvary Chapel

Thursday, Nov. 4, at Westminster High.

The Breakers close out the regular season on Nov. 12 by hosting

Corona del Mar.