Sea Kings, Mesa denied

Patrick Laverty

Both Corona del Mar and Costa Mesa were considered longshots to earn

at-large berths into the CIF Southern Section playoffs after losing

their regular season finales Friday and neither longshot panned out

when the pairings were announced Sunday.

The Sea Kings (5-4-1, 2-2-1 in Pacific Coast League play) lost out

to Sunny Hills (6-4) for the Division IX at-large berth and La Serna

(7-3) was chosen over the Mustangs (5-5, 2-4 in Golden West League

play) in Division VII.

The at-large berths were announced at 10:30 a.m. at the CIF

Southern Section office in Los Alamitos Sunday and Corona del Mar

Coach Dick Freeman found out by phone that his team did not make it

to the postseason.

“It’s a shame,” Freeman said. “They worked pretty hard. Andy

Lujan, [Mordy] Ornguze and [Brian] Dunn, they deserved better than

that.”

Those three players are among the 11 seniors on the Sea Kings

roster. They were the only senior starters for a team that is sure to

challenge for the Pacific Coast League championship next year with 10

starters returning on offense and nine on defense.

“We’ll be back,” Freeman said.

But the reason the Sea Kings aren’t back in the playoffs for the

fifth time in six seasons is the way they finished the season. After

winning its first two league games, Corona del Mar lost to Northwood,

tied Tesoro and was defeated by University.

“It just ended up being the way the schedule worked out,” Freeman

said.

The Sea Kings’ finish overruled an early-season, 22-7, win over

Troy. Freeman was hopeful that would entice the playoff committee,

since Troy finished the season with a 14-0 victory over Sunny Hills.

But in the end, it was the one extra victory that Sunny Hills

posted that gave it the at-large berth.

* COSTA MESA: La Serna had two more victories than the Mustangs,

but lost it’s final three games, including a 43-3 contest against

Santa Fe on Friday.

Mustangs Coach Dave Perkins submitted his team for an at-large

berth despite its loss to Santa Ana Friday, hoping that La Serna

would be taken to task for finishing the season with three straight

losses. But instead it was the Mustangs who lost out because of the

season finale.

If Costa Mesa had beaten Santa Ana, they likely would have had a

very strong case for the at-large berth.

“It’s tough, we’ve got a lot of players that worked really hard

but we had a lot of adversity that we just couldn’t overcome,”

Perkins said.

That adversity continued through the final game when junior

quarterback Bruce Wilkinson was suspended for disciplinary reasons.

But Perkins said that did not affect the Mustangs.

“It really didn’t,” Perkins said. “We really didn’t need to throw

the ball that much. Ryan French ran everything we needed him to run.

A sophomore making his first varsity start, he played very well.”

What did affect the Mustangs was an early three-touchdown deficit.

It wasn’t the first time this season that Costa Mesa had dug itself a

big hole, crawled back into the game, only to expend so much energy

getting back in it that it lost in the end.

“Hopefully, it’s something the juniors and sophomores can learn

from,” Perkins said.

Those juniors and sophomores will go to work right away getting

ready for the 2004 season.

* ESTANCIA: The Eagles will also begin preparations for the 2004

season immediately. Coach Craig Fertig said after Thursday’s

season-ending loss to Pacifica that he would return for a second

year.

Estancia (3-7) won three of its first four games this season

before losing the final six. But three wins was a big improvement

over the last two seasons, when the Eagles won just once in 19 tries.

* SAGE HILL: The Lightning (1-8) won just one game in their second

season fielding a varsity program, but the future looks considerably

brighter.

Sage Hill used a roster that was heavy on freshmen and sophomores

this season, including ninth-grade standouts, Braden Ross and Don

Ayres. Sage Hill loses just five seniors from its 2003 roster.