Corona Del Mar Outlasts La Serna to move to 5-0

Newport Beach – In the battle of two 4-0 teams, Corona Del Mar remained undefeated, beating La Serna 30-24 on Thursday at Davidson Field.

The Sea Kings advanced to 5-0 while handing the Lancers their first loss of the season, but it wasn’t an easy task. La Serna is well-known for running a Wing-T offense and being extremely physical.

Corona Del Mar jumped out to a 13-0 lead after a pair of JD Annett touchdowns. The first one came on a 36-yard keeper up the middle while the second one came on a 14-yard pass to Tucker Murray after the Lancers turned it over on a strip takeaway.

The extra point was missed following the first touchdown.

La Serna, knowing it couldn’t fall behind by three scores on the road to the Sea Kings, got on board thanks to Grady Long finding Daniel Moreno on a 75-yard touchdown catch and run on the first play of the drive.

The second quarter featured both team’s defense making big plays against the other team’s offense, as Corona Del Mar picked off Long courtesy of Nate Rothman. The Lancers and Sea Kings exchanged field goals right before halftime, as Chuck Nailor’s field goal came right before the intermission, giving his team a 16-10 lead.

La Serna being down at halftime was unfamiliar territory for it, as it had led at halftime in every game prior. In addition, it wound up winning comfortably in each of its four games.

The Lancers’ comeback trail was evident, as it’s lone drive of the third quarter nearly ate up nine minutes of the drive, using multiple run plays. The drive was capped off by Xavier Nunez’s one-yard touchdown run, as the visitors took the lead for the first time.

Things started to look a little grim for Corona Del Mar as it punted back to La Serna with the fourth quarter being a third of the way done. But the Sea Kings forced its third turnover on the Lancers by striping the ball away from the ball carrier and recovering it at the La Serna 10-yard line.

From there, Corona Del Mar took advantage as Annett found Nolan Scott for the touchdown reception to give it the lead. The Sea Kings went for the two-point conversion, but was unsuccessful.

La Serna didn’t let that deter them, as they used a good kickoff return to give itself good field position. Eventually, Long found Alex Gaytan for a catch and run touchdown, giving the Lancers the lead at 24-22 after kicking the extra point.

With 4:54 left, Corona Del Mar knew that was enough time to go down the field and at least get the go-ahead field goal, but it wanted more in case La Serna went down the field wanting a go-ahead field goal of their own. Annett led his team down the field, but the Lancers stopped them on the one-yard line on a third down quarterback sneak attempt.

Faced with a big decision of either relying on your kicker to give them the lead as opposed to putting the hands in your quarterback to do so, the Sea Kings put the game in Annett’s hands, as he plowed his way in for the touchdown and completed the two-point conversion to Nolan Scott on a roll out play. With 1:05 left and one time out remaining, La Serna put the game in the hands of Long to lead them down the field and get the go-ahead touchdown

Things looked promising for the Lancers, as Long ripped off a 17-yard first down, but after the play, one of their La Serna players received an unsportsmanlike penalty after the play was over, turning Long’s 17-yard pickup at the Corona Del Mar 33 into a first down at the Corona Del Mar 48.

To Long’s credit, he did everything he could to keep the drive going for La Serna. But on 4th and 1, Long threw it to the end zone as his pocket started to collapse hoping for a receiver to be down only for the pass to be battled away and incomplete.

The Sea Kings eventually went into victory formation despite a second being added on to the clock, as they celebrated knowing that they walked out still undefeated.

Corona Del Mar has a bye, but is back in action on Friday October 2 to kick off Bravo League play against Villa Park at 7 p.m. at Fred Kelly Stadium on the campus of El Modena. The Spartans are also 4-0 after recently

beating Long Beach Wilson 59-14, as they host Lakewood on Thursday before they can clash with the Sea Kings.