Los Alamitos Routes Corona del Mar in Sunset League Opener (2021)

Westminster – Boswell Field

The Los Alamitos Griffins began conference play with an authoritative win over Corona del Mar, defeating the Sea Kings 42-14 on Thursday night.

The sun set on Memorial Stadium in Westminster to a crowd anticipating the best football of the year, and by the end of the night, it was No. 5 in the county Los Alamitos stealing the show with the win.

The Griffins began the game with a 12-play offensive drive capped off with a 9-yard touchdown pass from 5-star Oklahoma commit Malachi Nelson to his soon-to-be Sooner teammate Deandre Moore Jr. After converting on 4th and 13, Moore Jr. got separation on a slant route over the middle to put Los Al on the board, 7-0.

The Sea Kings tried responding with a very creative playbook; lots of stack, motion, and pistol formation, but their first drive ended with junior quarterback David Rasor punting to the Los Al 2-yard line.

Nelson picked up where he left off, passing for 52 yards and using 5 different rushers (including himself) to drive 98-yards for an eventual 14-yard receiving TD to junior running back Gavin Porch, who ran a wheel route out of the backfield. The Griffins kicked off to the Sea Kings at the top of the second quarter, leading 14-0.

After a CdM three-and-out, it only took one play for Los Al to set up a goal line touchdown for tight end Sinn Brennan, who took a direct snap at the 1-yard line.

Down three scores, the Sea Kings were forced to take some risks. After benefiting from holding and roughing the passer penalties, Rasor aired out the football, finding senior WR John Tipton for a 27-yard completion deep right. That was the lightning. The thunder came on the very next play when Tipton made the middle safety bite on his stop-and-go route, shot up the middle of the field, and secured Rasor’s 22-yard pass for a CdM touchdown.

With the lead now cut to 14, the CdM defense made a huge stop on the next defensive drive, highlighted by senior linebacker Charlie Mannon’s first sack of the game.

Only three minutes were left in the half as the Sea Kings got the ball on their own 10-yard line. A strong drive could have brought head coach Dan O’Shea’s team within one score of Los Al, but a string of bad luck sabotaged a golden opportunity for CdM.

On 3rd and 8, Rasor completed a pass to junior WR Cooper Hoch, but was marked just short of the first down. Pinned at their own 19-yard line, CdM had no choice but to punt. Rasor took the snap, set his feet, and kicked the ball— straight up. The football tailed high in the air, just passed the line of scrimmage, and went out of bounds 13 yards away, at the CdM 32-yard line.

With intense rhythm, Nelson and the Griffin’s offense set up on the short field and drove with ease. Five plays later, and with only 27 seconds left on the clock, Nelson whipped a bullet pass left, finding the hands of 5-star WR Makai Lemon for the touchdown. Special teams completed the PAT, and both Sunset League juggernauts made their way to the locker rooms, the scoreboard showing Los Alamitos leading 28-7.

After deferring the opening kickoff, the Sea Kings received in the second-half down 21. An incompletion and a short run later, the CdM offense looked like it was going to have yet another three-and-out. Rasor took the next snap, surveyed his options, then let out a tight spiral towards the left sideline, and found the hands of his favorite WR of the night, Tipton. The junior broke away from the defense, sprinted parallel to the sideline, before finally being taken down at the Los Al 15-yard line for a gain of 49.

Despite the massive development, the Los Al defense put an immediate halt to their league rival’s momentum on the very next play.

With 15-yards to score, Rasor took the snap, faced pressure off of the edge, rolled out left, and again looked to get the ball to Tipton. Almost as if it were in slow motion, the safety over the top of Tipton cut off his path to the football, jumped up, intercepted Rasor’s pass, and returned it to the Los Al 24-yard line.

After the huge turnover, any chance of a CdM comeback was slim-to-none— it was Los Al’s game from that point on.

A pair of punts and a turnover on downs by the Sea Kings put a hiatus on both team’s scoring, but that changed when Griffin’s RB Gavin Porch got the handoff at the CdM 44-yard line. With 48 second left in the quarter, Porch shot up the strong side C gap, completely torched the Sea Kings’ front seven, and went virtually untouched for a 44-yard rushing touchdown to put Los Al up 35-7.

“It was tough, they have speed all across the board,” CdM senior LB Charlie Mannon said. “They have a great o-line, a great quarterback, and great wide receivers. It was tough competition and they just got the best of us.”

The Sea Kings would add to their tally in the fourth quarter, but mostly in vain, as Rasor took heavy contact up the middle to score a 3-yard rushing touchdown with 6:26 left to play in the contest, still down 35-14.

Corona del Mar was less than a yard away from converting an onside kick the very next play, but the referees finalized an illegal touching call on the Sea Kings’ kicking team.

Two punts later, the Griffins found themselves with the ball on the Sea Kings’ 39-yard line, already up 21. After an illegal chop block from the CdM defense, Malachi Nelson made the defense pay on the very next play, completing an 18-yard TD pass to Moore Jr. The 6’0, 190 pound receiver shed multiple tackles, took a hand to the facemask, made the facemask hand motion towards the ref mid-stride, and was tackled into the endzone for the game’s final points.

With two minutes left to play, CdM brought in backups Kaleb Annett and Colin Pene to run out the clock, effectively ending the first Sunset League game of the season— final score 42-14 in favor of the Griffins.

Los Al improved to 5-1 on the year, and tout a 1-0 record in league. The Sea Kings suffered their first loss of the 2021 fall season, and now hold a record of 5-1 (0-1).

CdM plays Huntington Beach High School at Davidson Field (NHHS) next Friday at 7 p.m.

Los Al will play another highly-ranked Orange County opponent, No. 7 Edison High School, at home Thursday at 7 p.m.