Chaminade Flies by ‘Air Cal,’ 31-6

“Air Cal” was grounded Friday night, not by fog or an air traffic controllers’ strike, but by a flock of Eagles.

The Chaminade High Eagles, dominating both sides of the line of scrimmage, shut down Calabasas and its vaunted passing attack, winning, 31-6, at Calabasas High.

Chaminade is 3-1-1 with the non-league win, while the Coyotes, off to their best start ever, fell to 4-1.

The Eagles, led by running backs Jang Kim and Tim Lavin and a swarming defense, erased an early 6-0 deficit and scored the game’s next 31 points. Chaminade stayed mostly on the ground, netting 298 rushing yards and 377 total yards.

Kim and Lavin did the bulk of the damage, rushing for 140 and 101 yards, respectively. Lavin, a sophomore, scored three touchdowns on runs of 1, 5 and 13 yards.

In addition to being the leading rusher, Kim kicked a 42-yard field goal in the third period and booted all four of the Eagles’ extra points.

Calabasas, noted for its high-powered passing attack known as “Air Cal,” was limited to 131 passing yards Friday. Forty-six of those yards came on two fake punt plays.

Coyote quarterback Darren Del’Andrae, under a heavy rush most of the game, completed just 6 of 26 passes for 85 yards and was intercepted twice. He was also sacked four times.

“We physically got beat up,” said Calabasas Coach Larry Edwards. “They came out and were relentless. They just kept hitting and hitting and hitting us and we never got going. They controled the line of scrimmage, controled the tempo and controled the game.

“They did a great job.”

After fullback Jim Ervin put Calabasas ahead with a six-yard touchdown run early in the game, Chaminade came back to score a first-period touchdown on a five-yard run by Lavin, who then added a 13-yard touchdown run midway through the second period as Chaminade built a 14-6 halftime lead.