CdM Sea Kings ready for Buena Park Coyotes in quarterfinals
Those barks and howls at Corona del Mar High were not coming from actual coyotes on Wednesday. While the Sea Kings prepared for their quarterfinal football game in the CIF Southern Section Southwest Division playoffs, they mimicked the sounds of coyotes.
The Sea Kings’ opponent on Friday uses the “Coyotes” as its mascot. Coach Dan O’Shea said his team had better be ready when it plays at Buena Park at 7 p.m. because these football Coyotes are dangerous.
O’Shea said the Coyotes (9-2) possess the kind of athletes and speed No. 3-seeded CdM (9-2) hasn’t seen much of all season.
“They look like Florida freaking State,” O’Shea said of the Coyotes, who boast players with college offers from Notre Dame, Michigan, Miami, Tennessee, Washington, Utah, Nebraska, Oregon State, Baylor and Cincinnati. “It’s critical that we set edges on defense and we tackle extremely well in space.
“I think with their dynamic athletes … it has the potential to be a high-scoring game.”
No team has been able to keep up with CdM in the past five weeks, as it has won by an average of 32.8 points per game.
Since 2011, not many have picked against the Sea Kings in the postseason. They tend to win, losing only once in their past 17 playoff contests.
However, one popular and accurate high school football website in the state predicts a Buena Park win.
“And rightfully so,” said Kevin Hettig, CdM’s offensive coordinator, adding that he’s heard about the 35-34 prediction by calpreps.com. “[The Coyotes] played a tough schedule [with Freeway League games against champion La Habra, which earned the top seed in the playoffs, and Sonora, and nonleague games against Edison, the Sunset League champion, and Downey Warren, which shared the San Gabriel Valley League title]. They’ve done a good job over there.
“They have five or six scholarship athletes on the team. They definitely have the athletes. They have Pac-5 level athletes.”
Some of those Buena Park athletes have played for Pac-5 programs in the past.
On the CIF Southern Section website, it shows that a dozen players currently on Buena Park’s roster transferred to the school this year. Some of the bigger names are junior wide receiver Taariq Johnson, a 6-foot-3 transfer from Los Angeles Hawkins, junior receiver and cornerback Elijah Gates, a transfer from Mission Hills Alemany, junior receiver Jeremiah Hawkins, a transfer from Yorba Linda, and senior running back Elijah Bynum, a transfer from Orange Lutheran.
Those first-year Coyotes look to lead Buena Park back to the semifinals. Buena Park’s season ended a year ago with a 38-7 setback in the semis to Trabuco Hills.
That same Trabuco Hills team eliminated CdM in the quarterfinals last season. The loss snapped the Sea Kings’ 15-game winning streak in the playoffs, denying them a run at a fourth consecutive section crown.
The Sea Kings are ready to make another deep postseason run. They have proven that they can be successful with the players in their neighborhood.
“We take great pride in taking local kids who believe in a community football program,” said O’Shea, who served as CdM’s defensive coordinator the previous three years, before becoming the head coach this year. “We’ve said it once, we’ve said it twice. We’re not interested in getting into what high school football has become, you know, chasing down transfers and importing guys.”
Out of the Sea Kings’ 22 starters, O’Shea said 21 of them started with the CdM program as freshmen.
One of those players is quarterback Chase Garbers. He’s a junior now and he has stood out this year.
The no-huddle offense is clicking because of Garbers, who has thrown for 2,598 yards and 32 touchdowns. He has weapons in receivers Peter Bush (61 catches for 908 yards and 15 touchdowns), Reece Perez (50 catches for 401 yards and two touchdowns) and Taeveon Le (seven touchdown catches).
Jaydin Moses is also running the ball well for CdM. The junior is averaging 142.5 yards and one touchdown on the ground in the last four games.
Feeding Moses will be a key for CdM, which wants a balanced attack against Buena Park. O’Shea expects Buena Park to play man on CdM’s outside receivers. The Coyotes feature two shutdown cornerbacks in Gates and Devon Cooley.
The man coverage is something Garbers hasn’t thrown against for most of this year. But all season, Garbers has made the right reads, only three of his 304 passes have been intercepted.
“His biggest thing is his ability to make decisions quickly,” Hettig said of Garbers, who has completed 71% of his passes. “He has the ability to kind of get through a lot that’s going on and simplify and compartmentalize the game.”
