Prep football: Double duty

Barry Faulkner

COSTA MESA - Only Estancia High junior Lewis Bradshaw’s mother

knows for sure.

At least that is the theory subscribed to by Eagles football coach Jay

Noonan, as to just how exacting the physical toll of playing nearly every

play is on the 6-foot-3 189-pound team leader.

“I don’t believe he would have it any other way,” Noonan said of

Bradshaw, who triggers the veer option offense at quarterback, while also

starting at outside linebacker. “He’s a young man who likes to be

involved and hates to sit on the sideline. He’s that way about other

aspects of his life, too. He doesn’t want to be standing around watching

the world go by.”

Operating behind a young, inexperienced offensive line, standing is a

luxury not afforded Bradshaw too often. He has been sacked 13 times this

fall and hurried on countless other occasions. Thanks to his 38 rushing

yards on 14 carries Friday in a 49-6 Pacific Coast League loss to

unbeaten Northwood, Bradshaw pushed his per-carry average from less than

1 yard to 1.2 on 80 attempts. He scored his third rushing touchdown of

the season against Northwood and has also thrown for 552 yards and two

TDs.

Similarly, Bradshaw displays no lack of aggression when attacking

opposing ball carriers.

“He enjoys the physical contact. He just enjoys the game,” Noonan

said. “He loves to play defense. He gets a lot of rhythm on offense from

what he does on defense.

“It’s hard to keep a good horse in the stable and he likes being in

the action,” Noonan said. “He likes to find the action when he’s on

defense and when he’s playing quarterback, the action usually finds him.”

Misfortune has consistently found the Eagles this fall, particularly

on offense, where the high-risk ball handling associated with the option

has often led to turnovers.

Such was the case again against Northwood, which recovered four of the

Eagles’ six fumbles and intercepted two passes to improve to 7-0, 2-0 in

league.

Despite the potential pitfalls his offense creates, Noonan said he

will stay the course with the option, a scheme in which he passionately

believes.

“We’re going down the right path,” Noonan said. “We’re dealing with

things young teams deal with, but we’re getting better. When we haven’t

made mistakes, we’ve moved the ball. It’s a brand new system for the kids

and we did not get the benefit of implementing it in spring practice

(which took place before Noonan was hired).

“Lewis is starting to become much more comfortable on his reads and he

is starting to take over a little bit, which is not a bad thing. This

offense takes discipline and concentration on every play and sometimes

we’ve lacked that. But we’ll keep teaching and I believe we’ll be just

fine.”

The Eagles (0-6, 0-2) will hope to iron out a few more flaws before

dueling crosstown rival Costa Mesa in the annual Battle for the Bell, 7

p.m. Friday at Orange Coast College.