CdM’s passing attack slowed
PALOS VERDES ESTATES — Fifty minutes before Corona del Mar High kicked off the season on Friday, Coach Dan O’Shea and the rest of his football team looked up to the sky. They couldn’t help themselves, nor could the home team, which is also the Sea Kings.
There was a surprise flyover at Palos Verdes.
While the three planes impressed those involved in the game, the way Palos Verdes’ defense grounded CdM’s aerial attack stood out more than the pregame air show. Palos Verdes harassed Cal-commit quarterback Chase Garbers all game, and it blew out CdM, 42-20.
Garbers, a 6-foot-3, 210-pounder, never looked comfortable. The senior only completed 25 of 47 passes, below his 68.7% clip from a year ago.
Palos Verdes sacked Garbers three times, and in the first half the defense kept him from going to his top and biggest target, Taeveon Le, a 6-4, 225-pound junior.
“We were preparing for them not to blitz in their basic 4-3, cover 2 [defense],” said Garbers, who threw for 246 yards and two touchdowns, both second-half scores to Le (10 receptions for 98 yards). “New defensive coordinator, so they kind of changed things up.
“Penalties killed us,” Garbers said. “We didn’t execute on offense. That’s on [me].”
The lack of an offensive rhythm resulted in CdM, the top-ranked team in the CIF Southern Section Division 4 preseason poll, saying goodbye to its 15-game winning streak in season openers. The 3 p.m. start was earlier than the previous openers, but O’Shea said playing in the afternoon didn’t affect the outcome. He credited the host Sea Kings, who reached the Western Division final last year for the third time in four seasons.
O’Shea called the game against Palos Verdes, the No. 9 team in Division 3, “sloppier than expected.” The sloppiness began right away, as seven penalties for 75 yards hampered CdM in the opening quarter.
The referees flagged the visitors for practically every penalty in the book. Then Palos Verdes committed an unsportsmanlike penalty late in the first quarter, and CdM moved inside the red zone. A play later, running back Jaydin Moses appeared to rush for a 12-yard touchdown, only to have it called back because of a holding penalty.
The first quarter couldn’t end soon enough for CdM.
Eight seconds into the second quarter, CdM held on a short screen pass, and this penalty Palos Verdes declined. With CdM facing a fourth-and-eight on the opponent’s 11, the team brought out left-footed kicker Max Casper. The junior converted a 28-yard field goal for the game’s first points.
It took a while for the next score. Palos Verdes ran 13 plays, the last on fourth-and-goal on CdM’s doorstep. Bobby Gilbertson capped the little-more-than five-minute drive with a one-yard touchdown run, helping give Palos Verdes a 7-3 lead midway through the second quarter.
A couple minutes later, CdM shanked a seven-yard punt and Palos Verdes took over on the CdM 45.
After running Adison Umrarong four straight times, giving him 23 of 61 first-half yards, Palos Verdes quarterback Jake Nolls passed. After an incompletion, he threw for a 32-yard touchdown.
Nolls found a wide-open Nicolas Alessi on the right side, near the end zone, allowing Palos Verdes to take a 14-3 lead with less than two minutes left before halftime.
Garbers tried to rally the offense, hoping to make it one-score game by halftime. He completed seven passes in a row, covering 57 yards. His string of completions ended when Garbers spiked the ball on Palos Verdes’ 20-yard line with 19.7 seconds remaining.
Garbars’ next two attempts went into the end zone — a jump ball to Le in double coverage and a pass to Billy Shaw in one-on-one coverage — and each one broken up by Palos Verdes defenders. Umrarong got his hand on the first pass, as did Cole Wilken on the second.
Then on fourth-and-10, it was defensive end Shane Irwin’s turn to get his hands on Garbers. Irwin sacked Garbers for the second time, as CdM turned the ball over on downs with 2.2 seconds left in the first half. Instead of trying a 37-yard field goal to cut Palos Verdes lead to eight points, CdM went into the break down two scores.
“It was a big decision,” O’Shea said. “There’s a lit bit of concern at the length of the field goal and the field goal going into the wind, and at that time we decided to take a shot. We liked our matchups, but [with] the pressure on Chase, we didn’t get the ball out on fourth down.”
At the start of the second half, Dylan Tucker helped CdM make it a one-score game.
The senior returned the kickoff 66 yards to the Palos Verdes 32. Just like CdM’s final first-half possession, the offense reached the 20 before it faced another fourth-and-long situation. This time, CdM opted for the field goal and Casper converted from 37 yards out.
With CdM only down 14-6, and with Umrarong exiting with a foot injury midway through the third quarter, things looked promising for O’Shea. But without Umrarong, who rushed 12 times for 71 yards, Gilbertson and Nolls picked up the slack, combining for 115 rushing yards.
Gilbertson rushed for three second-half touchdowns and totaled four on the ground. The third touchdown by Gilbertson, who rushed 18 times for 63 yards, was the biggest.
After Garbers found Le for a five-yard touchdown pass late in the third quarter to trim CdM’s deficit to 21-13, Palos Verdes answered with a huge fourth-down play early in the fourth quarter. Palos Verdes, on CdM’s 47, needed two yards to move the chains. It got 44 yards on a play-action pass from Nolls to Irwin, the tight end. From three yards out, Gilbertson scored and Palos Verdes went ahead, 28-13.
“He runs hard,” Palos Verdes Coach Guy Gardner said of Gilbertson, who matched the number of rushing touchdowns he had last season. “There are times when you’re like, ‘Where are you going?’ Then he just starts churning the legs and he’s going to give you everything he’s got.”
Palos Verdes also got its first win in a season opener in six years.
Nonleague
Palos Verdes 42,
Corona del Mar 20
SCORE BY QUARTERS
CdM 0 – 3 – 10 – 7 — 20
Palos Verdes 0 – 14 – 7 – 21 — 42
SECOND QUARTER
CdM – Casper 28 FG, 11:48.
PV – Gilbertson 1 run (Coale kick), 6:32.
PV – Alessi 32 pass from Nolls (Coale kick), 1:54.
THIRD QUARTER
CdM – Casper 37 FG, 10:40.
PV – Gilbertson 2 run (Coale kick), 5:21.
CdM – Le 5 pass from Garbers (Casper kick), 2:05.
FOURTH QUARTER
PV – Gilbertson 3 run (Coale kick), 10:30.
PV – Gilbertson 6 run (Coale kick), 2:47.
CdM – Le 22 pass from Garbers (Casper kick), 0:16.
PV – Wilken 48 kickoff return (Coale kick), 0:07.
INDIVIDUAL RUSHING
CdM – Moses, 5-24.
PV – Gilbertson, 18-63, 4 TDs.
INDIVIDUAL PASSING
CdM – Garbers, 25-47-0, 246, 2 TDs.
PV – Nolls, 8-18-0, 143, 1 TD.
INDIVIDUAL RECEIVING
CdM – Le, 10-98, 2 TDs.
PV – Alessi, 3-54, 1 TD.
