Breakers suffer key injuries

Chheng and Preston out for season as Laguna loses to CdM.When the Laguna Beach High football team dropped a 27-0 Pacific Coast League game to Corona del Mar on Oct. 20, the setback proved to be more costly than just a loss.

Two key cogs on the team, Garrett Preston and George Chheng, suffered season-ending injuries. The seniors were both two-way starters. Preston suffered a torn quadricep and Chheng a knee injury.

The good news in the loss to Corona del Mar, Breakers coach Jimmy Nolan said, was the fact that Laguna’s defense played “much better” than it did in its previous game, a 52-7 loss to Tesoro on Oct. 7.

For the third consecutive week, the Laguna offense was held to a touchdown or less.

The shutout was the first of the season for the Breakers.

“The offense was unable to get things together with these two key losses,” Nolan said of the injuries to Preston, a wide receiver, and Chheng, a running back.

“Our blocking was not good, our passing game was poor and our run game was negative. To make matters worse, our head coach did not have his offense prepared to execute or line up right, in the event of subs playing when starters are injured. Terrible coaching on my part, and that is the truth.”

The loss capped a three-game stretch that saw Laguna take on teams that perennially finish in the top half of the Pacific Coast League standings: Northwood, Tesoro and Corona del Mar.

Nolan said that that run of games has left his squad “injured and irritated,” adding that he’ll know just how well his team has come out of the three-game “nightmare” after Thursday’s game against Beckman.

The score of the Laguna-Beckman game was not available at press time.

Next up for the Breakers is University on Nov. 4 at Guyer Field. University played Tesoro Thursday.The Trojans have league wins over Beckman and Calvary Chapel and were 4-3 overall heading into the Tesoro game.

Following Friday’s game against University, Laguna will host Calvary Chapel in the regular season finale for both schools. That Nov. 11 game also will serve as Senior Night for the Breakers.

Taking a three-game losing streak into the Beckman game Thursday, Nolan said he’d like to see his team rise to the challenge at season’s end.

“I need to see more toughness,” he said. “We have lost the physical battle against five of the seven teams we’ve played thus far. I can accept getting beaten. It is not the loss that bothers me. Getting out-hit, out-toughed and pushed around by our opposition is difficult to swallow.

“Win or lose, I want to see some aggression, hitting, violence and fight going on out there. This is football. We need to play it like it is.”20051028iozu7aknDON LEACH / COASTLINE PILOT(LA)Laguna Beach’s Matt Renault runs away with an interception on a pass intended for CdM’s Erik Rask.