Corona del Mar football coach Dan O’Shea proud of this year’s team and excited about the future

Corona del Mar players take the field for last Saturday’s CIF football championship game.

Corona del Mar football coach Dan O’Shea came home with his Sea Kings football team and not long after watching a television replay of the CIF Division 4 championship football game, O’Shea was already thinking about next year and the prospects for another promising season.

The top-seeded Sea Kings saw their hopes for the school’s sixth CIF football title end when third-seeded Grace Brethren pulled off a 26-14 victory at Royal High in Simi Valley Saturday night.

“Number one, a huge compliment to Grace Brethren,” O’Shea said in an interview this week. “They were just a Division 12 or 13 school, and then they won it last year in Division 8 and make a jump to Division 4. And just a compliment to them on the line of scrimmage. It is the single most physical group we’ve ever encountered in the eight years. They are more physical than JSerra, they can play in the Trinity League with their linemen.

“I’ve seen the Bosco line and the Mater Dei line. They can handle the line of scrimmage against Bosco and Mater Dei.”

The Grace Brethren line was critical in pulling out the victory, O’Shea said.

O’Shea was able to assess what happened and why Grace Brethren was able to notch the win.

“I was pleased in general how well we played their base run game based on what they had done to everyone else all year,” O’Shea said. “In the second half, I think they made a couple of adjustments in moving from their straight Maryland I to their wildcat, putting the quarterback there and shifting additional big guys to one side or another.

“I thought we did a really good job defending the pass.  What we didn’t do well defensively we did not do a good job with the quarterback scramble, especially on third down. We had them in a third and 12, and he scrambles for a first (down). We did not create any turnovers; teams that have beat them created the turnovers, and took away possessions from them.

“Short of that, if you would tell me we would hold them to 26 points and two field goals, I would have said, ‘all right, we’re going to be in good shape.'”

O’Shea said the offense moved the ball, but dropped passes hurt the Sea Kings, who finished with an 11-2-1 record.

“Offensively, it’s a credit to them; we were slightly out of character,” O’Shea said. “We threw for 300 yards and we had just as many total yards of offense, but we had three turnovers, three interceptions inside the 30, we had eight dropped passes and we had some untimely penalties: illegal formations and motion (penalties).”

O’Shea said CdM didn’t allow a sack until late in the fourth quarter and handled the pass rush “fairly well.”

“I thought (quartrerback) Ethan Garbers did a really good job of creating time for himself to deliver the ball,” O’Shea said.  “But we were certainly out of sorts a little bit with the turnovers and penalties and dropped passes.”

The Sea Kings’ top wide receiver John Humphreys was heavily defended. O’Shea said.

“They double teamed him the entire time,” O’Shea said. “They played man-to-man coverage in John Humphreys’ face and then they took  their wide receiver about 10 to 12 yards over the top. They were not going to let John Humphreys catch a ball deep by any stretch. I think he had six catches for about 60 yards and he had to work to get those. But we think of him as certainly one of the best wide receivers in the country as a junior and they did a good job of coraling him.’

Garbers, who holds numerous CdM passing records, wound up with 424 completions for 4,137 passing yards and 55 touchdowns. Humphreys, who also holds a number of CdM records, had 103 receptions for 1,783 yards and 28 touchdowns. Both players return to lead the offense next year.

After the game, O’Shea made it clear he was proud of his players for how they handled the loss and conducted themselves during the season,.

“It is so important whether we win by 15, lose a tough one, heart-break city, they all happen over the course of the season,” O’Shea said. “But our message is always the same: we don’t define Corona del Mar football by the scoreboard, win or lose. We’re extremely proud of our boys for a wonderful season and an incredible accomplishment to get to the CIF championship game but for the seniors, we salute them for an incredible amount of dedication and selflessness as leaders while the underclassmen walked off that field extremely hungry and anxious to get going in June for 2019.”

The prospects do appear bright for CdM next season.

“We’re really blessed with a really, really young team,” O’Shea said. “Ten out of out 11 offensive guys are coming back and six out of our 11 guys on defense, so we certainly have a ton of underclassmen and it’s on us to make sure we maximize our potential and play Corona del Mar football the right way and hopefully have a chance to chase down that ring next year.”

-Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com