Daily Pilot High School Football Player of the Week: Murphy leads CdM’s ground game

As a kid, JT Murphy always knew he was going to attend Corona del Mar High. The school is where he said his parents, Kevin Murphy and Tracy Schriber, met and began dating in the late 1980s.

Kevin and Tracy also played sports at CdM, Kevin football and Tracy girls’ volleyball. Each helped their teams win a CIF Southern Section title, Kevin in 1989 and Tracy a year later.

JT Murphy, Kevin and Tracy’s only son, is now one win away from playing for a section crown with the CdM football team.

Murphy and the No. 3-seeded Sea Kings (11-1) play host to No. 2 Lompoc (12-0) in the semifinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 4 playoffs at Jim Scott Stadium on Friday at 7 p.m.

The Sea Kings have made it this far because of Murphy’s stellar performance last week in a 49-48 win at Ontario Colony in the quarterfinals. The junior running back rushed for 194 yards and three touchdowns, both career highs.

Murphy rushed 17 times and topped 100 yards on the ground for the first time since the second game of the season. Murphy’s first 100-yard performance came in a 31-13 win at Los Gatos on Sept. 2, and it was the start of CdM’s 11-game winning streak.

The Sea Kings haven’t had to run Murphy much during the successful run because they have won rather easily with Cal-bound quarterback Chase Garbers throwing for 3,370 yards and 42 touchdowns. The Sea Kings have also pulled their offensive starters out at halftime or in the third quarter.

Last week at Colony was a different story. Murphy and CdM’s first-team unit played four quarters.

It seemed as though the Sea Kings were on their way to another blowout win. Murphy rushed for a 27-yard touchdown, his second score, helping CdM take a 42-20 lead 69 seconds into the second half.

Then Colony scored the next 20 points, doing so in a 5-minute 9-second span in the third quarter. The Sea Kings’ 22-point lead dwindled down to two.

Sea Kings Coach Dan O’Shea said his team looked calm on the sideline. No one was pointing fingers. No one was panicking.

Deep down inside, Murphy said he could feel the game getting away from CdM.

“I was a little nervous,” Murphy said.

Murphy had good reason to be worried.

Playing on the road in the quarterfinals had not ended well for the Sea Kings in the previous two years. They lost in this same round as the No. 3 seed at Buena Park, 35-17, last year, and lost as the No. 1 seed at Trabuco Hills, 28-10, two years ago.

As one of the top three seeds again, Murphy did his best to keep CdM ahead. He made it a two-possession game with his 17-yard touchdown run. With 14 seconds left in the third quarter, the Sea Kings led, 49-40.

No team would score again, until with 1:38 to go in the game. Colony found the end zone and converted a two-point try, getting within one of CdM. On the ensuing kickoff, Colony tried an onside kick, which the Sea Kings recovered.

The Sea Kings ran out the clock, finally breaking through the quarterfinals. Nothing else mattered to Murphy, not his scraped elbows caused by defenders tackling him to the turf.

At one point, Murphy said his left elbow bled so much that one referee ordered him off the field in the third quarter. Murphy went to the sideline, got the elbow taped up, and returned to the field.

Murphy is a competitor, just as his parents were at CdM.

Murphy’s mother played outside hitter on the CdM volleyball team. As a senior, Tracy earned a share of the CIF Southern Section Division 5-A Player of the Year award for leading the Sea Kings to the section title in 1990, the same year CdM claimed the CIF State Division I title.

Murphy’s father was a junior linebacker on the Sea Kings’ CIF Southern Section Division VI championship team in 1989. That same year, Lompoc, CdM’s opponent on Friday, made it to the section final in a division lower than the Sea Kings.

Twenty-seven years later, Kevin’s son stands in the way of Lompoc making it to the section championship game.

Murphy wears No. 31 because his dad did with the Sea Kings. The current No. 31 at CdM hopes to be the next member in his family to get a chance to play on the big stage.

“When you get in the playoffs, you have to be able to pound the ball,” said O’Shea, who is counting on Murphy to help the Sea Kings against a stingy Lompoc defense that allows only 3.6 points per game. “JT is as happy as any player to get the opportunity to run the ball, and he’s ready.”

JT Murphy

Born: June 1, 2000

Hometown: Newport Beach

Height: 5 feet 10

Weight: 195 pounds

Sport: Football

Year: Junior

Coach: Dan O’Shea

Favorite food: Steak

Favorite movie: “The Revenant”

Favorite athletic moment: “Winning the Battle of the Bay this year [against rival Newport Harbor].”

Week in review: Murphy rushed 17 times for 194 yards and three touchdowns in the Sea Kings’ 49-48 win at Ontario Colony in the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 4 playoffs.