Estancia hopes for rebound

After just three games, Estancia High’s football team has already been through a wide range of emotions.

The Eagles outscored Mark Keppel and Bolsa Grande by a combined 100-7, but then they fell back to earth in last week’s 28-7 loss to Buena Park.

But just like two blowout wins in the first two weeks didn’t necessarily define Estancia, Coach Brian Barnes said the loss to Buena Park wasn’t as bad as it seemed.

Still, Estancia hopes to get back into the win column tonight, when the Eagles (2-1) play JSerra (1-1) at 7 at Orange Coast College.

“The loss to Buena Park affected the kids,” Barnes said. “That’s one of the biggest differences between last year and this year. On the bus ride home, they were upset. This has been a real good week of practice and our kids are fired up to win again.”

Barnes said JSerra is a fast team, and the Lions will likely run a spread formation with four receivers and one running back. That was effective on Friday for JSerra, which posted a 47-22 win over Brethren Christian.

The Lions are led by senior receivers Joseph Cappelletti and Mikhail Marinovich, who combined for 176 receiving yards and two touchdowns from sophomore quarterback Sam Inman in the Brethren Christian win.

Cappelletti, a senior, also ran for a score.

“If they get around the outside, they’re off to the races,” Barnes said. “They do have some big offensive linemen as well, but they’re not that physical. I hope we can use our physical [defensive line] to our advantage.”

The Eagles had problems doing that in the Buena Park loss, but Barnes said that was at least partially due to the quality of the opponent.

“I thought Buena Park would be the biggest, most physical team we’d see all year,” Barnes said. “We’re still working on trying to get to that level. We gave up big plays defensively and then offensively, we couldn’t get anything going.”

Barnes will look for a more productive offense against the JSerra defense, which he said is usually in a four-four formation. The Lions have given up over 20 points in each of their first two games.

“They look very similar to us,” he said in regard to the Lions’ offensive and defensive formations.

As the Eagles have all season, they plan to start virtually the same offensive and defensive lineup against JSerra. The one projected change is at cornerback, where senior Brian Harriman will likely make his first start of the year.

Estancia gained just 165 net yards in the loss to Buena Park, but one positive was the play of senior backup running back Edgar Vargas. He entered the game with under two minutes left and carried three straight times for 34 yards, eventually scoring the Eagles’ lone touchdown of the contest.

“We’ve got a lot to improve on, but hopefully we can give a good showing [tonight],” Barnes said.