Monday Morning Quarterback:

A celebration at Davidson Field was quickly snuffed thanks to the specter of a possible concussion that hung over the field Friday night at Newport Harbor High, reminding fans and athletes alike of the seriousness of injury.

The usual post-game bedlam was eclipsed by silence and shouts of “Get the doctor! Bring some water!”

Corona del Mar Junior Dan DiChiro had collapsed on the ground after the game and stayed there as at least six long minutes ticked by. A woman, presumably DiChiro’s mother, stood nearby, her shoulders shaking and eyes watering, and she was obviously worried about DiChiro.

He turned out to be fine. DiChiro rose, let out a jeer of happiness over the Sea Kings (2-3) 22-14 victory over South El Monte. After an magnetic resonance imaging scan, DiChiro reported to CdM Coach Dick Freeman that he had been diagnosed with dehydration and exhaustion.

His doctor said that’s what caused the collapse, although the symptoms DiChiro exhibited were also in line with a mild concussion, Freeman said. If DiChiro did suffer a concussion, it was too mild to be detectable with an MRI.

Either way, DiChiro will not play this week.

“He played more than he normally does, and he’s one of those guys where his motor’s running all the time anyway,” Freeman said. “Nobody watched him, so we need to make sure that his is drinking water.”

Still, DiChiro’s fall showed that the “c-word” is no joke to high school football programs.

This year, CdM enlisted a private company to analyze normal brain activity of all its football players. The company uses a simple diagnostic computer test that every player takes at the beginning of the season.

If a player is thought to have a concussion, he re-takes the test to determine when his brain is back to normal.

“We’ve been pretty careful with them all the way through,” Freeman said. “I don’t think we’re showing any more [concussions] than anyone else. Had it been more severe, we can go back and re-test him, and that would give us a better idea.”

After three weeks of surreal win-loss margins, the Sage Hill School football team was finally looking at the sort of score they weren’t used to: a losing one.

And this time, it was coach Pete Anderson describing the Bakersfield Christian team as “outmatched.”

“It was the equivalent of us playing several divisions [higher],” Anderson said of the 47-0 loss the Lightning suffered Friday night.

In the three weeks prior to Friday’s loss, which ended a five-game season-opening home stand, Sage hill outscored its opponents 131-19. This week, the team will travel to Hawthorne High to play Animo, where things should simmer back down to the level that Sage Hill has become accustomed to.

“If you take the average height and weight of their team compared to ours, they were significantly bigger and still had a relatively high level of athleticism,” Anderson said.

The most frustrating part of the game, Anderson said, was that Sage Hill’s receivers were open for senior quarterback Jamie McGee. But the offensive line was so overwhelmed — it gave up four sacks — that he didn’t have time to get the ball off.

“We missed a couple really big plays, literally, by inches,” Anderson said. “There were just a really good team that your margin of error had to be less than just a few inches.”

It turns out, Estancia’s win over La Quinta Friday wasn’t just a “should-win” game.

It was a “must-win.”

Not because a win or loss against La Quinta had particularly valuable playoff implications, but because the Eagles didn’t want to be that team.

You know, the team that finally allowed La Quinta to break a two-year losing streak?

“I told the kids, ‘If they beat us, they’re gonna think they won the Super Bowl,’” said Estancia Coach Mike Bargas. “We didn’t approach these guys like it was an automatic victory.”

It almost wasn’t. La Quinta pulled within one point to make the score 14-13, but Estancia held on for the 28-13 win.

“It was nice to get back on the winning track,” Bargas said. “It makes it a little rough after you’ve got to practice after a loss.”

Now, the Eagles have a short week to prepare to face a tough Ocean View team (3-1) Thursday at Davidson Field.

It was the last half of coach Jeremy Osso’s sentence that may have held the most truth: “We looked good against ourselves,” he said, “But we haven’t looked good offensively against anybody else.”

Costa Mesa’s best offensive effort this season was against Santiago Friday night in Garden Grove, where the Mustangs netted a season-high nine points.

The defense made strides as well, allowing a season-low 20 points against the Cavaliers.

And yet those strides seem to be coming at a glacial pace, even in Osso’s own admission.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Osso said. “We’re making strides. We’re just not making them as fast as we’d like to. I’ve been around long enough to remember when Jeff Brinkley was 1-9. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not comparing myself to Jeff Brinkley, but it takes time to build a program.”

Costa Mesa started five sophomores Friday, and has regrouped through quarterback changes and the loss of its first-string running back, Antwon Byrd.

“At the beginning of the year, we were relying on Antwon’s speed,” Osso said. “We’re trying to rely on other guys. We’re starting two sophomores at wide receiver and a sophomore at quarterback.”

Still, Osso insisted, “Youth is not our excuse, our excuse is that we’re not executing.”

Newport Harbor Coach Jeff Brinkley was happy with the signs of progress he saw after the Tars picked up another win against fellow Pac-5 Division mate Dana Hills.

After losing to the Dolphins for the past two years, the Sailors made a better showing in Dana Point, and walked away with a 28-14 victory.

“I think Dana Hills is a good football team,” Brinkley said. “They’ve just happened to play a lot of good teams. They choose to play a schedule that’s extremely tough. It was good to see us go out and play well against them.”

The Sailors have been running behind junior left guard Peter Kinney since senior Chase Obenauer sustained a high ankle sprain in the Battle of the Bay.

Initially, Obenauer was playing on offense and defense, but since has been restricted to defense.

Kinney had two crucial blocks for Newport Harbor on a screen and a run play.

It is not clear if senior running back Ben Frazier will return for this week’s game against Mira Costa. Frazier missed playing against Dana Hills because of a small medial collateral ligament tear.

“We’re not going to push anything with any of the guys this week,” Brinkley said. “If he gets the nod, and he’s good to go, near 100%, I could see us playing him.”

SORAYA NADIA McDONALD may be reached at (714) 966-4613 or at [email protected].