Newport falls short

MISSION VIEJO — The Seattle Seahawks in the National Football League may not have a chance for the Super Bowl this year, but that was not the case for the 2009 Newport-Mesa Pee Wee Seahawks.

With a perfect 12-0 record heading into Saturday’s Orange County Junior All American Football conference Super Bowl held at Mission Viejo High, the Seahawks made it back to the Super Bowl for the first time in the last four years,

However, despite starting off with a 46-yard run by Hugh Crance, the Seahawks were held scoreless and lost to the Mission Viejo Cowboys, 14-0, and will have to wait another year for the title.

“I’ve been with these boys for three years, some of them for four,” Newport-Mesa Coach Fred Branca said. “It puts our chapter up with the Mission Viejo, the Irvine [Chargers] and the elite chapters that are here ever year. I’m proud of that.”

But the last playoff win for Newport-Mesa came at a heavy price. Seahawks’ starting quarterback and captain Ben Humphreys dislocated and stretched a ligament in his knee against the Carson Colts that game.

Humphreys said surgery is not required, but he’ll be out for 6 months.

“He’s our quarterback, our leader, and to lose him was a big loss,” Branca said, “but the kids came out this week, didn’t feel sorry for ourselves, we had a great week of practice and we were ready to execute and play hard today.”

Despite being limited to moving with crutches, Humphreys was in the middle of the pre-game huddle to hype up his teammates and was the loudest supporter on the sidelines, encouraging his team.

“I trusted my team to win,” Humphreys said. “We had a great season, but we just came up a bit short.”

One player Newport-Mesa could trust on defense was Noah Howe, who recorded the Seahawks’ only interception of the game.

“We just had a great season,” Howe said. “We didn’t have a lot of our great players because they were hurt. We’ll get them next year.”

Newport-Mesa’s Garrett Davis and Austin Ridge caught a couple of Crance’s throws in the contest and Chance Siemonsma was involved in arguably the most exciting play of the game.

On a running play that went awry, Crance shovel passed to Siemonsma to avoid a minus-10 yard sack and Siemonsma dodged tackles and reversed directions for over 10 seconds to net a one-yard gain for the Seahawks.

On defense, Harrison Carter held Cowboys’ running backs to no gains a few times and Parker Chase also played strong.

Chase also tackled the runner on a failed two-point conversion in the fourth quarter.

The Cowboys (12-1) first scored on a 12-yard pass from quarterback Devon Modster to Colton Young. The second touchdown was a 20-yard pass to Brandon Sloss, also thrown by Modster.

Mission Viejo’s Keith Waite II had two interceptions in the game and Quentin Longrie had one.

“It’s been a great season,” Branca said. “These boys came into practice everyday with intensity and focus. They met every demand we’ve thrown at them and I’ve never been apart of better group of boys in my life.”

The 2009 Newport-Mesa Pee Wee Seahawks included: Barrett Barbato; Trevor Branca; Ross Cameron; Michael Carmack; Harrison Carter; Parker Chase; Nino Chavez; Cole Collins; Hugh Crance; Clay Dandeneau; Garrett Davis; Josh Debernarde; Vik Ghadi; Cody Gores; Brett Greenlee; Richard Hagestad; Brandon Hauser; Clint Henderson; Robert Hoffman; Tyler Holt; Noah Howe; Ben Humphreys; Brian Leguay; Cole Misetich; Liam Ogburn; Ben Palitz; Chad Redfearn; Austin Ridge; Beau Roth; Brett Schisler; Chad Sheldon; Chance Siemonsma and Tom Winkle.