Enjoying the View

Laguna Hills High’s victory last week over Woodbridge upset the football balance of power in the Sea View League and prompted the question, “Who are these guys?”

Outside of Brandon Champlin, the only quarterback in the league with previous varsity experience, the Hawks are seemingly a bunch of no-names playing out of position or culled from the junior varsity; players whose greatest attribute might be their desire.

But notice has been served.

The Hawks are 4-2, and their victory over Woodbridge in the league opener knocked the Warriors out of the county top 10. Woodbridge had been ranked eighth.

Not a bad debut for Laguna Hills, which won the title last year in the Pacific Coast League and was moved to the tougher Sea View League through realignment.

“Every week there’s a clash of good football teams,” Coach Bruce Ingalls said of the Sea View League.

It’s no different tonight when Laguna Hills faces Newport Harbor, ranked No. 3 in Orange County.

Three Sea View League teams--Newport Harbor, Woodbridge and Irvine--have been ranked in the county’s top 10. The two new entries from the Pacific Coast League--Laguna Hills and Aliso Niguel--have not. Every team in the five-school league has a winning record.

“We figure we have nothing to lose,” Champlin said. “There’s not a lot of pressure on us. We all want to win for each other, to pull for one another.”

Champlin, a senior, has passed for 1,037 yards and 10 touchdowns with seven interceptions. Admittedly inconsistent, Champlin has completed 48.9% of his passes.

“No one’s worried about inconsistent play as long as we get the results, and he comes through in crunch time,” said defensive end Dustin Ashe-Everest. “In the fourth quarter, he’s calm, keeps his composure and makes smart decisions.”

For example, Champlin scored on a two-yard run with 3 minutes 26 seconds left against Woodbridge, then passed 22 yards to Jay Dale with two minutes remaining for a 21-15 victory.

Against Mission Viejo, Champlin completed a 59-yard pass to Brian Anderson with less than two minutes remaining and scored on a quarterback sneak with 22 seconds left for a 16-13 victory, the Hawks’ first over the Diablos.

“He has a live arm, he’s a tough kid who hangs in the pocket, he’s not afraid to run,” Ingalls said. “I still think his best is yet to come.”

Ingalls also calls Champlin “gutty” for getting up again and again after taking some vicious hits behind an offensive line that has only one returning starter.

“Our offensive line is blocking really great lately,” Champlin said. “The pass blocking has come around, but we still need to step it up a little in run blocking.”

The inexperience up front has necessitated creativity.

“In the PCL, we could hand the ball off two or three times and not blink an eye because we were strong and physical and had some big, bruising running backs,” Ingalls said. “We’ve had to find ways to get the offense moving . . . and [Champlin’s] had experience throwing the football. He’s done a nice job in the off-season of getting himself ready to throw the football.”

Neither Champlin nor his teammates are short on heart.

Two games into the season, the Hawks lost end Brandon Lamas, their best defensive player, with a separated shoulder. Lamas was the Pacific Coast League’s most valuable defensive player last year.

The injury, in a 13-0 loss to Trabuco Hills, resulted in wholesale changes on defense the following week. Most notably, linebackers Brandon Blocker and Ashe-Everest moved to defensive end, and two backup linebackers, senior Ryan Parker and sophomore Jordan Johnson, got starting jobs.

The defense, which allowed 35 points to Carlsbad, the top-ranked team in the San Diego Section, has given up only 41 points in the other five games.

“We’re kind of a no-name defense,” Ingalls said. “We turned into a bunch of little guys flying around out there.”

And Ingalls does mean little. When Lamas went down, it left only two defensive players--240-pound tackle Aynsley Silva and 250-pound tackle Norris Dixon--who weighed as much as 200 pounds.

But for the Hawks, it’s the size of their heart that counts.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

NEWPORT HARBOR VS. LAGUNA HILLS

Featured Game

When: 7:30 tonight

Where: Mission Viejo High

Records: Newport Harbor 5-0-1, 1-0; Laguna Hills 4-2, 1-0

Rankings: Newport Harbor is No. 3 in Orange County and No. 2 in Southern Section Division VI rankings; Laguna Hills is No. 8 in the section rankings.

Noteworthy: Newport Harbor’s game to determine the league champion got pushed up a week after Laguna Hills, in its Sea View League debut, upset Woodbridge with a couple of late touchdowns. The Hawks, who won the Pacific Coast League title last year, will place a heavy burden on their undersized linemen.