High School Football: CdM again reigns in PCL
IRVINE — The Corona del Mar High football stadium may have been playing at Portola High for the first time on Friday night, but the Sea Kings had on display the talent that has made them the class of the Pacific Coast League in recent years.
The school opened in August, and Northwood is playing its home games there this season.
“This is crazy,” CdM Coach Dan O’Shea said of the stadium. “Man, if we could have this at CdM, we’d be jacked up. This is phenomenal.”
The Portola High campus and football stadium are adjacent to the northeast side of the Orange County Great Park. Corona del Mar showed its greatness with a 45-7 victory over Northwood, clinching at least a share of its fifth straight league title.
The Sea Kings (8-1, 4-0 in league) are a game ahead of second-place Beckman with a game to play. CdM, ranked No. 4 in CIF Southern Section Division 4, already owns the tiebreaker over Beckman and can clinch the outright title with a win at Irvine on Thursday in the league finale.
CdM notched its 24th straight league win Friday night and eighth straight win overall. This one was textbook, as the Sea Kings scored touchdowns on each of their six drives in the first half. Leading the way again was Cal-bound senior quarterback Chase Garbers, who completed 20 of 26 passes for 264 yards and four touchdowns.
Garbers now has 33 touchdown passes this season, tying his CdM single-season record he set as a junior.
“Chase is able to process so much information, do it so efficiently, but our wide receivers are doing a great job catching the ball,” said O’Shea, who saw eight different receivers register receptions in the first half. “I don’t know if we had a drop tonight. And we didn’t run it a bunch, but we ran it well. It was a good balance all-around, and certainly Chase is the trigger-man that gets it all going for us.”
The Sea Kings were a bit sloppy early, committing five of their six penalties in the first quarter. Still, the touchdowns were going to come, especially with the solid offensive line play from left tackle Colston Chacon, left guard Sean Owens, center Arwin Rahmatpanah, right guard Bryan Aceves-Rodriguez and right tackle Denham King.
The visitors got on the board early with a 69-yard drive. After Garbers found senior Billy Shaw to convert a fourth-and-six from the Northwood 39-yard line, he then hit junior receiver TaeVeon Le streaking down the right side of the field for a 27-yard touchdown.
Northwood (1-8, 1-3) was forced to punt, and CdM senior Cameron Kourmos was ready. He caught it at his own 41 on the left side of the field, weaved through traffic near midfield and suddenly was gone. The special teams touchdown gave the Sea Kings a 14-0 lead with 5:31 remaining in the opening quarter.
“I got a good bounce,” Kourmos said. “It came up perfectly, and I had enough time. All my teammates, they set up the line across the field. I waited for it to set up, came out of the hole and there was just the punter to beat. It was so much fun celebrating in the end zone with my teammates.”
Northwood tried to respond later in the quarter, putting together a good drive led by senior quarterback Brandon Johnson. But twice on the drive, Johnson was pressured and nearly sacked by CdM senior linebacker Teddy Barber. The second time was on fourth-and-goal at the CdM five-yard line, and Johnson’s pass fell incomplete in the end zone late in the first quarter.
CdM then ran away with the game, adding four more touchdowns in the second quarter. Garbers found Le for a seven-yard touchdown near the front right pylon, before senior running back Jaydin Moses found the end zone from seven yards out as well.
Garbers then somehow slipped a four-yard touchdown pass to Kourmos in tight coverage, and CdM had expanded its lead to 35-0 with 2:52 remaining in the half.
The Sea Kings got the ball back at the Northwood 45 with 1:10 remaining. Garbers, who had completed 18 of his first 20 passes, uncharacteristically had three incomplete passes in a row.
But he used his feet to keep the drive alive, with a 14-yard scamper on fourth-and-10. Four plays later, he found Moses wide open in the back right corner of the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown on the final play of the first half.
“I love my quarterback,” Kourmos said. “He’s the best guy. I’m so excited … We have so many weapons on offense and it’s so much fun to play.”
Garbers was done after a half of action. Junior quarterback Nathaniel Espinoza took over in the second half and he was impressive, scrambling for 87 yards rushing on just four carries. The bulk of it came on a 53-yard run up the Northwood sideline.
“It’s his third game in a row that he just played fabulous in the second half,” O’Shea said. “[Espinoza] is going to be a leading part of our quarterback equation next year and we have a lot of confidence in him. He was super tonight.”
As a team, the Sea Kings aren’t quite looking ahead to next year yet though. They’re less than a week away from beginning to prepare for a run at the Division 4 title.
“[Winning league again] is a huge accomplishment,” Kourmos said. “We’re really proud, and we’re excited for playoffs now. We’re ready to move on, and we’ve got bigger and better things ahead. I can’t wait.”
Pacific Coast League
Corona del Mar 45, Northwood 7
SCORE BY QUARTERS
CdM 14 – 28 – 0 – 3 — 45
Northwood 0 – 0 – 7 – 0 — 7
FIRST QUARTER
CdM – Le 29 pass from Garbers (Casper kick), 8:03.
CdM – Kourmos 59 punt return (Casper kick), 5:31.
SECOND QUARTER
CdM – Le 7 pass from Garbers (Casper kick), 10:30.
CdM – Moses 7 run (Casper kick), 6:54.
CdM – Kourmos 4 pass from Garbers (Casper kick), 2:52.
CdM – Moses 12 pass from Garbers (Casper kick), 0:00.
THIRD QUARTER
NW – Aviles 9 pass from Johnson (Eguchi kick), 7:46.
FOURTH QUARTER
CdM – Casper 19 FG, 4:33.
INDIVIDUAL RUSHING
CdM – Espinoza, 4-87.
NW – Johnson, 6-36.
INDIVIDUAL PASSING
CdM – Garbers, 20-26-0, 264, 4 TDs.
NW – Johnson, 13-24-0, 140, 1 TD.
INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING
CdM – Shaw, 4-82; Le, 4-62, 2 TDs.
NW – Bellas, 4-84.
