Laguna Beach Rallies to Win, 35-24

And now for something competely different: good news from Laguna Beach High School.

Laguna Beach, remember, is the school with the athletic department that seemingly wants to make shooting itself in the foot a varsity sport.

Saturday at Laguna Beach, the Artists started their season with an unusually big bang.

The Artists came from behind to defeat Buena Park, 35-24, in its nonleague season opener that gave Laguna Beach Cedrick Hardman a win in his first outing.

“We’re glad to get out of there alive,” Hardman said. “They were a lot better than we thought they were.

“But this is my first game as a head coach, and I’ll take them any way I can get them.”

This one came the hard way, but it was satisfying for the Artist, nonetheless.

Behind 24-20 early in the fourth quarter, the Artists rallied for two touchdowns in the last two minutes to pull out the victory in front of 2,500 fans.

Running back Jonathan Todd scored the go-ahead touchdown on a one-yard run with 9:18 to play and then scored on a nine-yard run five minutes later to ensure the victory.

Quarterback John Kimball finished the evening with 323 yards passing on 17 of 27 with three touchdowns.

Laguna Beach has won football games before, of course, but perhaps never in quite so convincing a fashion.

The Artists discovered the forward pass with a vegance Saturday, blocked and tackled crisply and rallied behind their new head coach for the win.

Buena Park 0 12 12 0 -- 24 Laguna Beach 0 20 0 13 -- 33 LB--Cummings 57 pass from Kimball (Dennis kick)

BP--Carr 36 pass from Milligan (kick failed)

LB--Chesley 20 pass from Kimball (kick failed)

BP--Robbins 88 kickoff return (pass failed)

LB--Cummings 16 pass from Kimball (Dennis kick)

BP--Robbins 19 pass from Milligan (run failed)

BP--Rodriguez 20 pass from Milligan (pass failed)

LB--Todd 1 run (Dennis kick)

LB--Todd 9 run (kick failed)

Attendance--2,500