Laguna Beach Runs Past Calvary Chapel, 48-13

Coming off an Orange Coast League-opening home loss to Estancia a week ago, the Laguna Beach football team was in no mood to mess around Thursday night at Jim Scott Stadium on Estancia High's campus, where the Breakers rumbled past Santa Ana Calvary Chapel, 48-13.

Following a beautiful 12-play drive that chewed 6:13 off the clock, the Eagles opened the scoring when Dylan Goodman took a sweep to the right and cut it up the middle for a seven-yard touchdown.

The drive, which featured six runs, six passes and five first downs was a textbook example of balanced football.

The rest of the evening was decidedly unbalanced.

Laguna Beach (6-1 overall, 1-1 in league) began its offensive onslaught with a 35-yard connection from Larry Stewart to Robert Clemons off first-down play-action and never looked back.

Five plays later, junior tailback Drake Martinez scored the first of what would be four touchdowns on the night, a four-yard burst up the middle.

Martinez, the younger brother of Nebraska quarterback Taylor Martinez, was the spitting image of his slippery-footed sibling, using his unique combination of size and speed to baffle Calvary Chapel's second and third levels to the tune of 90 yards in 10 carries, including successive scoring romps of 16 and 10 to make it 21-6 with six minutes before halftime.

That's when senior tailback Norton Penney took over.

Following a Calvary Chapel three-and-out, Zach Jaffe sacked Eagles punter Tyler Raccuglia after a muffed snap, setting up the Breakers at the Eagles' eight. One play later, Penney scored on his eighth carry.

"We were on top of our game tonight," Penney said. "We played hard and kind of made up for last week. This will give us a nice confidence boost for the next few games in league."

Penney's ninth run went for 21 yards, and on his 10th he scored his second touchdown on a 36-yard burst around left side, aided by a wicked stiff-arm, that made it 34-6 at the 2:32 mark of the second quarter.

After Martinez took a Stewart screen pass 64 yards to the house to make it 41-13 at halftime, Penney opened the second half with an 80-yard blast up the gut on the Breakers' first play from scrimmage to up the score to 48-13.

"That was a tackle-trap up the middle," Penney said. "They were just flowing to the left and the right, keying up on me, so the middle was open."

All told, Laguna Beach racked up 454 total yards, including 339 on the ground -- 212 in the first half.  Penney finished with 201 yards on the ground, while Stewart finished a tidy 3-of-7 passing performance for 115 yards through the air.

"Oh, yeah," Penney answered when asked if the Breakers have something special going with its group of running backs. "We're solid. And then we have a little secret weapon in Robert [Clemons]. We don't use him much, but he's key."

Defensively, senior outside linebacker Ricky Coury led the way with two tackles-for-losses and a sack. Ricki Delatorre had a tackle-for-loss, Jaffe collected a sack, Martinez blocked Calvary Chapel's first extra-point attempt, and Robbie McInerny defended a pass and snagged an interception.

"I'm happy because I felt we had to bounce back. [Estancia] took it to us last week, and we got back up [tonight] and played well," Laguna Beach coach Mike Churchill said. "We just had too much speed for them tonight. I'm not going to say that I'm a genius, but if one thing works, I'm smart enough to go back to it."

Up next for Laguna Beach is a meeting with Godinez at Sergerstrom High on Oct. 28, while Calvary Chapel (3-4 overall, 1-1 in league) hosts Costa Mesa next Friday.

GAME STATISTICS

                                    1     2     3     4   --   T

Laguna Beach             7    34    7     0    --   48

Calvary Chapel            6     7     0     0   --   13


                                     LB             CC

First Downs                   16              17
Rushing Yards              339             92
Passing Yards               115            185
Total Net Yards             454            272
Turnovers                      1                1
Penalties-Yards            4-40           2-20


SCORING

1st Quarter

CC -- Dylan Goodman 7 run; kick blocked, 5:47
LB -- Drake Martinez 4 run; Robbie McInerny kick, 3:36

2nd Quarter

LB -- Martinez 16 run; McInerny kick, 10:37
LB -- Martinez 10 run; McInerny kick, 6:00
LB -- Norton Penney 8 run; McInerny kick, 4:23
LB -- Penney 36 run; kick failed, 2:32
CC -- Tyler Raccuglia 9 pass from John McLuckey Jr.; Kyle Hisa kick, 1:13
LB -- Martinez 64 pass from larry Stewart; McInerny kick, :55

3rd Quarter

LB -- Penney 80 run; McInerny kick, 11:48