Corona Del Mar Wins 10th Straight Battle of the Bay Despite Slow Start (2022)

Newport Beach – Davidson Field

Newport Beach – The Corona Del Mar football team rallied back from a 14-0 deficit, scoring 28 unanswered points to defeat Newport Harbor 28-14 on Friday in the 61st installment of the Battle of the Bay.

In winning the annual rivalry game for the 10th straight year, the Sea Kings (7-2, 3-1) guaranteed themselves to finishing in the top three of the Sunset League with one game to go.

“Hats off to Newport Harbor, phenomenal program, phenomenal team. Every day when we wake up as Sea Kings we think about what do we need to do to win Battle of the Bay and what do we need to do to ‘chase the ring.’ It takes 16 weeks to get a ring that we want,” Sea Kings coach Dan O’Shea said.

Newport Harbor started the game off on a serious note, as it scored first off a 27-yard float pass from Colton Joseph which looked like it was going to get intercepted, but was hauled in by Kashton Henjum. That touchdown capped off a five play, 73-yard drive.

Despite having a field goal get blocked in the first quarter, the Sailors continued to ride the Joseph pass train, as they neared another score at the end of the first quarter. On fourth and nine, Henjum hauled in a 20-yard touchdown pass in double coverage, as their lead doubled to 14-0.

Early on, the Sea Kings struggled offensively as they punted on their first two drives. The third drive was the charm, as David Rasor kept the drive alive by completing timely throws, with the biggest one being him finding Russell Weir on a 50-yard touchdown catch.

Now Newport Harbor struggled offensively, as the receiver-quarterback connection wasn’t there and they couldn’t pick up the first downs when it mattered most. As a result, the Sailors were shutout the rest of the game.

CdM benefitted from timely Newport Harbor penalties, which allowed drives to stay alive. Eventually, Rasor found a wide-open Zach Giuliano for the six-yard touchdown pass before halftime, where it was tied 14-14.

The Sea Kings took their first lead of the game when Rasor hit Mason Kubichek, who was standing all alone near the endzone with a 30-yard touchdown pass. That wasn’t the end of Kubichek’s big night as he came up big defensively.

Newport Harbor was driving but faced fourth and nine following a delay of game penalty. Joseph took off to run for the first down, but Kubichek made a shoestring tackle to stop Joseph short of the first down.

“We rallied together. Our defense was on the field a lot. After our offense got that drive together, we [the defense] were regenerated and ready to go and we had a gameplan for what they were doing,” Kubichek said.

On CdM’s next drive, Rasor took off to run for the first down and a lot more, as he went from his team’s 43 all the way to the Sailors’ six. Two plays later, the ball was snapped over his head, but was recovered by him, finding Cooper Hoch in the endzone for the score which eventually wrapped it up.

The defense picked off Joseph on the next drive and made sure to finish the game off with the offense having the ball and going down in victory formation.
“This was the most important game of the season. We knew this was going to be a tough one just because they’re a better team than they usually are,” Rasor said.
The Sea Kings conclude their regular season next Friday against Edison at Davidson Field at 7 p.m. For the Sailors (5-4, 1-3), their regular season finale is also on Friday at Huntington Beach, which could have playoff implications, at 7 p.m.