Eagles fall from unbeaten

Patrick Laverty

Craig Fertig said it best himself after his Estancia High football

team lost its first game of the season Friday, 27-6, to Katella High

at La Palma Park.

“The honeymoon’s over,” Fertig said.

After guiding the Eagles to two victories in their first two

games, one more win than they had in the last two seasons combined,

the first-year coach was forced to watch Katella senior Brandon

Barnes score four touchdowns, all on plays of at least 65 yards.

As a result, the Eagles will head into Golden West League play

next week, their opener is Friday against Ocean View, with a 2-1

record. But Fertig is sure to emphasize the two as opposed to the

one.

During Fertig’s postgame interview, senior Chad Sherrell came over

and tapped him on the shoulder.

“See that right there,” Fertig said. “That means a lot. He knows

we’re not going to hang our heads.”

The Eagles knew what they were in for against the Knights (2-1),

who spread the field with four wide receivers and pass on almost

every play. But they just couldn’t seem to hang with Barnes, who

finished with six receptions for 236 yards.

He scored his first touchdown on a 65-yard interception return in

the first quarter. With less than a minute to go in the second

quarter, he caught a 65-yard pass from quarterback Ethan Haller for a

touchdown, giving Katella a 12-0 lead at halftime.

“They had two big plays in the first half, the interception and

the big pass,” Fertig said. “We never recovered.”

It wasn’t just those plays, though. It was also Estancia’s

inability to make the big play itself.

All six of the Eagles’ first-half drives entered Katella

territory. But Estancia never ventured farther than the Knights’

23-yard line and failed to come away with any points on all six

drives.

Estancia wasted 11 first downs in the first half and 111 yards

rushing.

But those rushing yards were a bit deceiving, since 35 came on the

first three plays of the game, all runs by David Moreno. After that,

Estancia managed just 99 yards on 33 plays in the first half.

A fumble recovery by Sherrell on the opening play of the second

half, gave the Eagles the ball at the Katella 34-yard line. But

again, there was nothing the offense could do with the good field

position.

After Mike Cahill ran for 4 yards on first down, the Eagles lost 4

yards before punting on fourth down.

“We weren’t blocking up front to start with,” Fertig said.

“Because of that we could never get our running game going. And our

quarterback made a couple of bad reads.”

The Eagles defense hung tough, forcing a punt and then a turnover

on downs on the next two possessions, but the offense maintained its

impotency.

With 47 seconds remaining in the third quarter, Brooks turned a

wide-receiver screen pass into a 70-yard touchdown and a 20-0 Katella

lead.

On the Knights’ next offensive play, with 10:47 remaining in the

fourth quarter, Haller hit Brooks down the right sideline for a

68-yard touchdown and a 27-0 lead.

The big pass plays led to a big night for Haller, who finished 11

of 25 for 327 yards. He ran the run-and-shoot offense flawlessly and

impressed Fertig, a former head coach at Oregon State and a longtime

assistant at USC.

“I went up him at the end of the game and told him, ‘If you have

good grades, if I was still a college coach, I’d be down here

tomorrow recruiting you,’ ” Fertig said.

Eagles quarterback Brad Young improved his own fortune on

Estancia’s final drive of the game, guiding a six-play possession

that ate up 52 yards and led to a 12-yard touchdown pass to Noe

Martinez.

Young, who completed 11 of 19 passes for a season-high 134 yards

and threw one interception in the game, was 4 of 5 for 49 yards on

the drive.

“It’s a little confidence for him and our offensive line,” Fertig

said. “We started to protect and he had time to make the right

reads.”

Another strong note going into league play is the Eagles’ rushing

defense, though it wasn’t tested often against Katella.

The Knights ran just four designed running plays, two of them

coming in the game’s final seconds. Katella lost 10 yards on the

ground on eight carries, with Estancia’s Gary Strawn recording two

sacks.