Crean Lutheran Coach Rick Curtis congratulates the Saints on winning the league title. (Photos courtesy John Luciano, For OC Sports Zone).
Crean Lutheran’s football team, led by senior quarterback Caden Jones and a stellar effort from its defense, defeated Corona del Mar 31-17 Friday night at Newport Harbor to clinch the Bravo League championship.
To see the slide show, click on the first photo:
Jones had a 73-yard TD run and threw an 83-yard touchdown pass to Damari Hall in the second quarter. The Saints defense also made some big stops on fourth-and-one inside Crean Lutheran territory.
Crean Lutheran (7-2, 4-0) finishes league play vs. Villa Park at home next Friday.
“I’m just proud of how the kids played,” said Crean Lutheran Coach Rick Curtis. “We never give any shoutouts to our offensive and defensive coordinators, John Byszewski and Russ Oka did a great job. First thing is that we got to honor God and we thank him for all he does for us.
“We praise Him and I thought we did a great job of honoring him and playing clean football. I was just super proud of how hard the kids played. That was a great football team we played, they’re first class all the way.
“It {the league championship} feels good, I know the kids are excited. This league is a gauntlet. Caden had another great game, we’re really excited about the way we played. The fourth down stops were big, we like that. Kevin {CdM coach Hettig} does a great job with this football program, we’re happy to get out of it alive.”
Jones had an outstanding all around game completing 14 of 24 passes for 182 yards and three touchdowns. He also rushed for 83 yards on six carries. When the Crean Lutheran-CdM game was finished, Capo Valley was still playing Villa Park in a game delayed by lightning.
Capo Valley won 30-18 and is in second place entering week 10 but Crean Lutheran owns the tie-breaker in the event the two teams tie since it defeated the Cougars (8-1, 3-1) earlier this year.
“It means a lot, we’re trying to be undisputed league champions,” Jones said. “It’s just another game, I think it was a great team effort. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my O-line and our receivers and the blocking for me and the running back getting yards and defense getting stops. I think it was a great team win.”
Crean Lutheran moved ahead 24-17 when Jones connected with Caleb Bey Jr. on a 6-yard TD pass with 4:33 left in the game. The Saints were able to stop CdM on the next series and added an insurance score when Jones hit Damari Hall on a 15-yard TD pass to make it 31-17.
Bey also rushed for 66 yards on 13 carries.
CdM (7-2, 2-2) was led by junior quarterback Luca Dinapoli who completed 14 of 31 passes for 249 yards and two touchdown passes, filling in for injured starter John David Arnett.
Dinapoli also rushed for 53 yards. JJ Haley hauled in five catches for 146 yards and Trejan Nixon had 65 yards on 12 carries for the Sea Kings.
“The kids played tough,” said Hettig, the CdM coach. “We had a chance there in the fourth quarter, we had personnel issues with guys going down and us scrambling a little bit, but every kid that got on that field battled his tail off tonight. We’re proud of our fight, you can’t make as many mistakes as we made tonight and beat a team like this.
“They’re a very good football team and they took advantage of every opportunity they had. The quarterback had some huge plays. Overall, I was proud of our kids, I thought we showed up and I thought we fought.
“Luka came in and made some really nice throws and he had a couple good runs out of the pocket.”
After a scoreless first quarter, Crean Lutheran outscored CdM 17-10 in the second quarter.
Crean Lutheran got the ball in scoring position following an interception by Aaron Nicasio who returned the ball about 40 yards to the Sea Kings 22-yard line. The Saints moved ahead 3-0 on a 35-yard field goal by Eric Miao.
However, on the next series Dinapoli hooked up with Haley on a 52-yard TD pass to put the Sea Kings ahead 7-3.
Crean Lutheran regained the lead when Jones bolted 73 yards for a score to give the Saints a 10-7 lead.
Mateo Akerman connected on a 30-yard field goal to tie the game 10-10. But on the next series Jones hit Hall on an 83-yard scoring striking giving Crean Lutheran a 17-10 lead at halftime.
In the third quarter, Corona del Mar’s Nolan Scott put pressure on Jones, who tried to throw a pass. But officials ruled the play a fumble and the Sea Kings took over on the Saints 25-yard line.
CdM converted the turnover into a touchdown when Dinapoli hooked up with Dylan Paolone on an 18-yard TD pass to tie the game 17-17 midway through the fourth quarter.
But Crean Lutheran was able to finish strong to secure its second consecutive league championship.
Jones, the Saints quarterback, said he’s looking forward to senior night next week and then the CIF playoffs.
“We went 10-0 last year (in regular season), obviously that’s a great accomplishment but we want something bigger this year,” said Jones, who has signed with University of Arizona. “The fact that we played some Trinity League teams and some other big leagues, we’ve been battled tested and fight through that, I think that’s what prepared us for this league.
“We stayed level headed and let our playing do the talking for sure. Obviously, I’m looking forward to playoffs. I try not to look ahead but we’re just really looking forward to the next game, but this program has never made it past the second round of the playoffs. For us to do be able to do that and bring something home for Irvine, it would mean a lot to Crean {Lutheran}. Coach has done a lot for us, being able to do that for him would mean a lot.”
CdM, despite losing its last two games, is also headed to the CIF playoffs.
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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