After 1-5 Season Start, Corona del Mar Takes First

The Corona del Mar Sea Kings were supposed to expect this, of course. They were supposed to know that they could do this all along.

No matter that the Sea Kings lost their first four games this season. No matter that they had won only one of their first six.

“We knew we’d be back,” said Sea King running back Matt Patterson, who rushed for 92 yards in a 6-0 victory Friday over Newport Harbor that made Corona del Mar the Sea View League champions. It culminated a remarkable comeback this season by the Sea Kings.

“I cannot believe this,” Dave Holland, Corona del Mar coach, said after his Sea Kings finished the season with a 5-5 overall record, 4-1 in league play.

And most important, with the championship, the Sea Kings earn a berth in the Central Conference playoffs.

Newport Harbor, which could have won the title with a victory, finishes in fourth place and and will not advance.

Patterson, a 6-foot, 185-pound senior who gained 92 yards in 25 carries, scored the game’s only touchdown on a one-yard run with 7:14 to play in the third quarter. A mishandled snap on the extra-point attempt turned into a failed two-point conversion, leaving the score at 6-0.

That proved sufficient for the victory in front of 4,000 at Orange Coast College.

The touchdown was set up by the Sea King running game and the passing of quarterback Mitch Melbon, who completed 11 of 14 passes for 136 yards. A 15-yard personal foul penalty called against the Sailors also helped, giving the Sea Kings a first and 10 at the 12-yard line.

Newport Harbor (7-3, 3-2) had its chances. The Sailors had the ball with 2:15 to play when Drew Sheward recovered a Sea King fumble at the Newport Harbor 31-yard line, but shortly after, three consecutive incomplete passes and one short completion by quarterback Kirk Summers ended Newport Harbor’s threat.

The Sailors had trouble moving the ball all night, relying almost exclusively on running back Tom Walker, who finished with 67 yards rushing in 19 carries.

Hardly anyone else carried the ball, and Summers was ineffective.

In the first half, with the league championship and the Newport Beach bragging rights there for the taking, neither team was taking.

Newport Harbor managed only 81 yards of offense in the first half, driving no deeper than the Sea King 31.

Corona del Mar advanced as far as the Sailor 16, but gave up that ground on a holding penalty and eventually missed a field goal attempt.

In the second half, Corona del Mar was by far the more effective team, earning the Sea Kings’ third straight victory in a 25-year-old series. They trail in the series, 18-7.

This victory must have seemed a long way from those first weeks of the season.

“All we could do was keep playing,” Patterson said.