Cypress gives CdM a lesson, 35-10

Richard Dunn

ANAHEIM - Special consideration will probably be given in practice

this week to Corona del Mar High’s football team in the unexplored area

of making solid contact.

Among the missing elements, according to their coach, were blocking

and tackling.

After a close first half, host Cypress scored three touchdowns

Saturday night in the opening 2 minutes 20 seconds of the second half to

break it open while using only two offensive plays, as the Centurions

(2-0) defeated Corona del Mar, 35-10, in a nonleague game at Western

High.

Cypress senior Robert Clark returned the second half kickoff 84 yards

for a touchdown to ignite the Centurions’ rally, after Cypress led at

halftime, 14-3.

On the Sea Kings’ ensuing drive after starting deep in their own

territory, Cypress defensive back Jelani Gamba sacked CdM junior

quarterback Dylan Hendy in the end zone and jarred the ball loose.

Linebacker Jacob Kartchner recovered the fumble for Cypress in the end

zone and the Centurions had their second touchdown in 1:22 without an

offensive play. Chris Adornetto kicked the extra point for Cypress to

build its lead to 28-3.

After Javier Murguia of Cypress recovered another CdM fumble at the

Sea Kings’ 15-yard line on the game’s next offensive play, the Centurions

reached paydirt again two plays later when senior tailback Darren Shorter

scored on a 5-yard run with 9:40 remaining in the third quarter.

Adornetto’s fifth point-after kick provided Cypress with a commanding

35-3 edge.

“Those were big plays and I think that swung the momentum completely

around to us,” said Cypress Coach Kerry Crabb, whose squad got a

jump-start on the 2000 campaign with a 44-7 victory last week on the road

against Handsworth of North Vancouver, Canada.

“We returned that opening kickoff for a touchdown, then got a turnover

in the end zone, then after getting the ball back, we scored again pretty

quickly. From then on, it was a fire drill.”

CdM Coach Dick Freeman, whose squad opened its season, said “it was

ugly ... it was the worst football game I’ve ever been associated with

here at Corona del Mar.”

Freeman was mainly concerned about his team’s blocking and tackling.

“Yeah, (the score) was good at halftime, but I still think football is

a contact sport and we were not playing it right,” he said. “We’ve got a

long way to go. They took the wind out of our sails the first time they

hit us. It was close at halftime, but we were never really in it.”

Shorter rushed for 109 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries to lead

Cypress, while quarterback Justin Rice completed 11 of 19 passes for 143

yards and no interceptions.

The Centurions started their first offensive series of the game with

excellent field position on the Sea Kings’ 31, and six plays later

Shorter scored on a 1-yard plunge up the gut.

Corona del Mar’s Jon-Luke Del Fante, a senior, kicked a 28-yard field

goal to cap the Sea Kings’ third possession with 2:54 left in the first

quarter.

But those would be their only points until the waning moments, when

Matt Cooper scored on a 2-yard touchdown run with 1:14 to play in the

contest. CdM’s score was set up by Eric Snell’s 36-yard punt return.

Cypress scored again in the first quarter when Rice connected with

Clark on a 57-yard pass play. Kerry Lathon was the intended deep receiver

with two CdM defenders in the neighborhood, but the ball sailed over

their heads and Clark was there to haul it in at the CdM 28, then Clark

sprinted untouched to the end zone.

Freeman shuffled Hendy and junior Joe Barber at quarterback, but the

Sea Kings’ passing attack totaled only 44 yards in 21 throws (six

completions).

“We weren’t platooning them, we were just looking for somebody to

generate something,” Freeman said. “Actually, we didn’t want them both to

die, because we weren’t blocking anybody. The way we blocked, we were

lucky we didn’t lose anybody (to injury).”

Cypress not only won the battle in the trenches and on the scoreboard,

it merited the game’s biggest hits and electrified the crowd with blazing

speed.

The Centurions’ downfall, however, was 16 penalties for 130 yards

against them.

Their defense held CdM to only one offensive first down in the second

half.